The Var Keyword

Consider the following block of code:

            using (NorthwindEntities entities = new NorthwindEntities())
            {
                var x = from y in entities.Categories
                        select y;
            }

The Var keyword resolves at run-time, meaning that its value depends on the right hand side of the equation.  If I chain a function on the right hand side like this, var takes on a different meaning:

            using (NorthwindEntities entities = new NorthwindEntities())
            {
                var x = (from y in entities.Categories
                        select y).First();
            }

I see that var is used extensively, so I guess I am in the minority but I don’t like to use it.  I am willing to trade off some verbosity for clarity of intention.  If I use the var keyword, I need to read the right hand side of the equation first to figure out what goes in it (and hope that I guessed correctly – with some of the convoluted LINQ that I have seen written, no small task).  Since I read left to right, it waste time and my CPU cycles.  In addition, I fail to see what is wrong with being more explicit in the left hand side of your equation:

            using (NorthwindEntities entities = new NorthwindEntities())
            {
                IQueryable<Category> catagotyQuery = from catagories in entities.Categories
                        select catagories;
            }

In this example, my intention is clear and I have much more readable and maintainable code.