Wall Street and the sports world are littered with the carcasses of fallen geniuses. These bright lights are soon dimmed and join the masses as ordinary people. We are too quick to raise each new false idol to the skies and declare them immortal.

Everywhere I go I am smacked in the face by the word "genius." Almost every grandparent has at least one grandchild that he or she can qualify as a "genius." Sometimes all the progeny are prodigies.

I agree that some of these kids are precocious but "genius" should be a different categorization and used cautiously and judiciously. I became so frustrated with the casual use of this word that I ran to the Webster's Dictionary. Here is the definition of genius: "Extraordinary intellectual gifts, evidenced in original creation, expression or achievement. A person of phenomenal and original powers for productivity in art, science, statesmanship," etc.

Listed are Mozart, Beethoven, Shakespeare, Napoleon and Einstein. Webster takes special pains to differentiate between genius and talent. "Genius is higher than talent, more spontaneous, less dependent upon instruction, less amenable to training. Talent is the capacity to learn, acquire, appropriate, adapt oneself to demand."

Genius is "exalted intellectual power, capable of operating independently of training and marked by extraordinary faculty for original creation, invention, discovery and expression, etc."

Spouting the ABCs at a very young age should make the grandma and grandpa proud but it hardly qualifies as genius. Reciting a poem or singing a melody in the living room in front of the entire family is wonderful but let us call the child "talented" and withhold the term "genius."

I have seen many a stock market genius wither and die. I have seen many flashes in the proverbial pan. Every day, many are raised to skies before they are re-examined and dashed to earth.

I am not trying to be a curmudgeon or a fuddy-duddy. I am merely trying to use a word or thought in a proper context. Let us wait a bit before throwing around the overused word "genius."