def load_special_words(data_file_name, words=None):
    """
    Loads the special words (those that don't get capitalized)
        
    from the data file in the package

    data file is a text file with one work per line
    the # charactor is a comment -- everything after it will be ignored

    """
    words  = set() if words is None else words
    with open(data_file_name) as data_file:
        for line in data_file:
            word = line.split('#')[0].strip()
            if word:
                words.add(word.lower())
    return words