Posts Tagged ‘Star Wars’

27
Jun

Word of the Week: Beltane

Dictionary --Word of the Week

Happy Birthday to the youngest son!

Last week’s WOW (Word of the Week) was anastrophe. We had a couple of guesses for this one. Merriam-Webster Online says that anastrophe means: inversion of the usual syntactical order of words for rhetorical effect. The daughter hit this nail on the head, giving the example of Star Wars’ Yoda, who is rather fond of anastrophe. Wise, you are, Daughter! So wise that she even trumped her granddad’s guess (although he took a great stab at it).

This week’s WOW is Beltane and yes, it’s capitalized. Here are my definition guesses for Beltane:

Beltane (ˈbel-tān) 1. A big horse with high “octane” 2. the offspring of a Belgian and a Dane 3. arcane belts

What’s your guess for Beltane? Can you outdo the relatives? Give it a shot by posting a guess in the comments section below this post! Thanks!

Wednesday’s Post: The Log Blog continues! 

You Might Also Like: Word of the Week: anastrophe and Word of the Week: ablution

06
Jun

Word of the Week: vox populi

Dictionary --Word of the Week

Good morning, Word Nerds! Last week’s WOW was pandiculation. The Merriam-Webster definition for pandiculation is: a stretching and stiffening especially of the trunk and extremities (as…after waking from sleep). This definition came from my bestest buddy:

“A panda verbalizing. Panda- from the Latin Pandus as in spreading round in a wide curved arch (I believe that Pandas were originally named this because of their wide, curved bottoms) iculation-from the Latin Locutiounis as in style of speaking. Thus the inferred meaning: Pandas have wide bottoms that make noise”

Now you know why she’s my bestest buddy. If you think this is amusing, go to a Star Wars movie with her. I’m amazed we didn’t get kicked out of theaters for antics during the fight scenes.

Today’s WOW (Word of the Week) is vox populi. Today I feel like giving you an extra definition. Here are my definition guesses for it:

vox populi (ˈväks-ˈpä-pyü-ˌlī) 1. many voices 2. verbosity 3. deafening sound 4. the chaos resulting from my household feeding an entire sports team Wednesday night dinner

21
May

The Odd Days of May…

Mother Goose?

Mother Goose?

Warning: Get a beverage first.

Normally, I would do an “Odd Days” post at the beginning of the month, but with my winter writing hiatus, I’m a little behind. So, since I just know you can wait no longer (yeah, right) for my commentary on the weird holidays of May, here goes:

May 1st – Mother Goose Day -This holiday celebrates fairy tales and does not celebrate goosing mothers, right?

May 2nd – Space Day – I’m sure we’re supposed to be focused on NASA, etc. on this day, but my mind fervently wants to put “Cadet” between Space and Day here

May 3rd – Lumpy Rag Day – I’m so relieved they finally made this a holiday–Smooth rags are just no help at all.

May 4th – National Candied Orange Peel Day – Since most December fruitcakes are composed of this stuff, why is it celebrated in May???

May 5th – Oyster Day – Since I’m not too fond of oysters, could we insert “Cracker” between Oyster and Day??? If so, I’m in.

May 6th – No Diet Day – Probably because I ate too many oyster crackers on May 5th.

May 7th – National Tourism Day – The ever-traveling hubby despises any day that encourages tourists to be tourists–just visit any airport from May to September and you’ll understand why.

May 8th – No Socks Day – Texans stopped wearing sox in April. Thus, this one must be for Midwesterners. It’s way too early for the northerners who might, emphasis on might, get to go sockless by the 4th of July.

May 9th – Lost Sock Memorial Day – Shouldn’t Lost Sock Memorial Day come before No Socks Day just naturally??? And memorial suggests the sock is not only lost, but also dead. I didn’t know that socks could be alive. But that just gave me an idea for a Mother Goose fairy tale.

May 10th – Clean Up Your Room Day – Because your mother is tired of your offensive alive socks all over your room

May 11th – Twilight Zone Day (Actually this is the correct labeling for May 9th–either that or having Star Wars Day on May 4th made the Twilight Zone fans a little jealous.)

May 12th – Fatigue Syndrome Day – Please note that this day came right after Mother’s Day.

May 13th – Frog Jumping Day – Is this the only day frogs should jump? Are you supposed to pounce on unsuspecting frogs? Are you supposed to play leap frog this day?

May 14th – Dance Like a Chicken Day – Had to be invented by a Texan since random Texans will instantly get in a circle to do the Chicken Dance when the appropriate music is played. No inebriation necessary…but probably helpful.

May 15th – National Chocolate Chip Day – I celebrated this day by consuming an entire large-sized bag of chocolate chips. It was my duty, right?

May 16th – National Sea Monkey Day – Because there just aren’t enough artificially colored brine shrimp in the world

May 17th – Pack Rat Day – Let’s not tell Hoarders about this day.

May 18th – No Dirty Dishes Day – Either this was invented by a mom who got tired of doing dishes after Mother’s Day or is an evil Communist plot by the paper plate industry.

May 19th – Boy’s Club Day – Ummm….and where, oh where is Girl’s Club Day??? Hmmmm….another evil Communist plot.

May 20th – Be a Millionaire Day – Is this when Bill Gates finally makes good on paying all of us for liking some status on FB?

May 21st – National Memo Day – To: Millionaires: From: MIP Date: May 21st, 2014 Re: We Hate You and Your Stupid Holiday on May 20th

May 22nd – Buy a Musical Instrument Day – Why? Because a pile of parents are tired of paying rent for their band kids’ instruments all year

May 23rd – Lucky Penny Day – The Unlucky Penny Union will be wanting equal time.

May 24th – National Escargot Day – I’m sensing a seafood theme here. See May 5th and May 16th.

May 25th – Tap Dance Day – Wear ear plugs?

May 26th – Sally Ride Day – Now, I’m sure this refers to astronaut Sally Ride, but my warped mind goes immediately to Mustang Sally by Wilson Pickett. You just sang, “Ride, Sally, Ride”, didn’t you??? 😉

May 27th – Sunscreen Day – This would have been more helpful on the day (earlier in May) when I endured a TCU graduation for 4 hours in the hot Texas sun. May 27th will probably still be “Recover from Sunburn” Day at my house.

May 30th – Water a Flower Day – I’m thinking that if you only water one flower on this day (and no other?), you won’t be seeing flowers at your house for very long.

May 31st – National Macaroon Day – I guess coconut is under-appreciated???

Friday’s Post: Slow Reader Friday & Book Club Announcement Day!

You Might Also Like: The Odd Days of January 2014, The Odd Days of December,  and The Odd Days of November

 

27
Feb

Lessons Learned from Star Wars…

Star Wars

Experts are now saying that one way we could prevent meteors from wreaking havoc on our planet is to use…a death star. No, I’m not making this up. Next, they will be telling us that Luke Skywalker is running for President in 2016. I can see it now…Light Sabers at the party convention! And at the convention party. 😉 So, since I came of age in the 1970’s and happened to inflict my kids with the same love of all things Star Wars, here’s a little reprise of a note I wrote on FB upon the re-release of Star Wars in 3D:

1. You only think you know who your father is.

2. Once you allow someone to put your hair in braided concentric circles around your ears, you will be forever labeled a bit of a nut case. Even if your mom and dad are a tad famous.

3. There are cowboys in galactic space warring. Chief among them is Harrison Ford. And I love cowboys.

4. The force is with you…if you can lift a spaceship in a swamp.

5. Talking backward….wise, you will sound.

6. If your name is Jar Jar, you belong in a jar…with the lid tightly screwed, to prevent escape.

7. I would have needed GPS to avoid crashing into trees in those airborne motorcycles in Return of the Jedi. And even then, I’m not promising much.  I would have been Ewok kibble, for sure.

8. If you want to catch all the one-liners in Star Wars, take your childhood best buddy with you. You’ll giggle your head off. Probably because she likes to add a few one-liners of her own.

9. If you want to watch someone’s eyes bug out watching that ship pass right over your head in the theater, take the eldest DS, who now understands why it’s not quite the same on DVD.

10.  George Lucas should be in charge of the U.S. government. If nothing else, he will be able to conjure up enough special effects to make us think something was actually accomplished.

11. The creatures in the bar strangely resemble my memories of…people I met in college. At a bar. And not in a good way. This might be why I don’t go to bars much anymore.

12. Darth has a really bad allergist. Anyone who can’t control their asthma better than that should be kicked out of the AMA.

13. Never give your two DS‘s light sabers. I learned to move all the lamps out of the living room.

14. You can be around your brother for years…and not know it. See # 1.

15. Karate suits look better with boots.

16. You never know when you might not actually be in a cave.

17. In the future, all cities will have dirt streets again.  Maybe because we’re all racing around voluminous rocky “mountains” in midair.  But people still walk on these dirt streets. Hmmmm…..

18. A huge mechanical-looking orb will be called a star. What? (And will now defend our planet against those nasty invaders called meteors.)

19. Never fight on a narrow walkway with asthma patients. See # 12.

20. The mean guy you know today will be a piece of cake to defeat tomorrow. Because…tomorrow you meet the next mean guy and he looks way crazier than the last guy.  And he has a red face with horns.

With you, the force will be…if you go to the movies this weekend. 🙂

Point to Ponder Challenge: What idea is lurking in your head that you think is a little preposterous, at least in the eyes of the world? Is it really that preposterous or does it just need some tweaking? What would need to happen to find out how to tweak it? Put those steps on paper or in your planner and make at least one happen this week!

Tomorrow’s Post: A Slow Reader at the Cross Roads…