Hobgoblin

The Word of the Day for November 30 is "hobgoblin."

hobgoblin: (noun)

1. An ugly, mischievous elf or goblin.
2. An object or source of fear, dread, or harassment.

Synonym: bugbear

Usage: But this encompassment of her own characterization... was a sorry and mistaken creation of Tess's fancy-- a cloud of moral hobgoblins by which she was terrified without reason.

Relevance to my Life: The myriad nagging insecurities and personal demons who are my constant companions cluster in the forefront of my mind like a clutch of hobgoblins, ready to tear me down at will without warning.

I Want to Break Free (Queen)
My anthem







I Won't Back Down (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers)
I ought to take this to heart






So now we find me sticking to my resolve, great. The problem is that that inevitably comes back to bite me on the ass. There are the times I stick with it, then there are the times when I ought to throw in towel. The problem I have is distinguishing between them.

I wonder, should I pull a George Costanza and simply start doing the opposite of what my instincts tell me? Thinking further, this just brings me to a new problem: maybe my true instincts have actually been right on the money and I just haven't been listening to them, instead opting for endless second-guessing until I don't know which is instinct, and which is insecurity.




The New George

Stammer

The Word of the Day for November 29 is "stammer."

stammer: (verb) To speak with involuntary pauses or repetitions.

Synonyms: bumble, falter, stutter

Usage: "You - you must think me crazy," stammered Anne, trying to recover her self-possession.

Relevance to my Life: My face red and cheeks hot, I managed to stammer out an apology before rushing away to hide on the third floor of the library among the bound journals where I sat and chewed on my feet for a while, ruing my ability to talk before thinking.

I was trying to think of an example from a movie which showed someone stammering from rage or shock, but drew a blank. I could think of several examples of stuttering. The clip I found show scenes from four different movies with a character who has a major stutter.

What's interesting is how different each character is, and the different responses to the stutter: amused mockery from Otto; Nurse Ratched's no mention of the stutter itself while she still manages to tear down the Billy calmly and coldly; Georgie's complete disregard of an idolized older brother's stutter; a defense attorney's somewhat amused condescension of a client he believes to be a bit feeble.




Stuttering in the Movies
A Fish Called Wanda, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, It, Primal Fear






Introducing Nurse Ratched
For someone who is so calm, collected and reasonable, Nurse Ratched might be the most quietly sadistic character ever written.





One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Therapy
Dog-piling as therapy. Interesting...





A Fish Called Wanda
And now for some humor...

Cipher

The Word of the Day for November 28 is "cipher."

cipher: (noun)

1. A person having no influence or value.
2. The mathematical symbol (0) denoting absence of quantity; zero.
3. An Arabic numeral or figure; a number.
4. A cryptographic system in which units of plain text of regular length, usually letters, are arbitrarily transposed or substituted according to a predetermined code.

Synonyms: a nobody, a nonentity

Usage: He was a cipher in the estimation of the public, and nobody attached any importance to what he thought or did.

Relevance to my life: When I am in the deep chasm of a depressive episode, it is hard to escape the feeling that I am but a cipher, less even than the numeral zero, which has a significant place in the mathematical world: simply by adding zeros to a digit, you can increase its worth manyfold, whereas I feel that I add nothing.

Other favorite nonentities include:




American Beauty
Lester Burnham, a Nobody no more






Glengarry Glen Ross
I don't know about you, but after being the subject of that obscenity-laden rant, I'd feel pretty worthless too. Again, Kevin Spacey, btw






Glengarry Glen Ross
This is the best scene in the movie. Alec Baldwin delivers one hell of a motivational speech. I'll bet these salesguys feel pretty low now. Sales is brutal. Damn. David Mamet is a genius.






Death of a Salesman
Willie Loman, the quintessential cipher







Full Metal Jacket
Speaking of anti-motivational speeches designed to tear people down to nonentities, here is Gunnery Sgt Hartmann at his best.

Nuzzle

The Word of the Day for November 27 is "nuzzle."

nuzzle: (verb)

1. Move or arrange oneself into a comfortable and cozy position.
2. Rub noses together.

Synonyms: cuddle, draw close, nest, nestle, snuggle

Usage: We nuzzled against each other to keep warm and quickly fell asleep.

Relevance to my life: He crawled under the comforter with me, nuzzled his face against my neck and held me tightly in his arms and we lounged in drowsy warmth as the blizzard raged quietly outside our window.

I love snow. A good blizzard or Nor'easter is quite something. I love the idea of something vast, cold and silent covering up passion, rage, murder, whatever.



The Ice Storm
I read a review of this movie once which claimed that this movie expressed perfectly the "frigidity of the WASP soul," which is something that really offended me. No one culture or race has primacy on emotion, or even how it's expressed.
It's stereotypes like these which only split people further apart.






Snow Falling on Cedars
As beautifully-realized as this film is, the book is many times better.





Kill Bill, Vol. 1
Showdown at the House of Blue Leaves
Another absolutely fantastic scene in the snow







The Shining
Ok, so sometimes being out in a blizzard in a maze with your insane father chasing you with a ax isn't a beautiful thing.
Oh, and could someone please give Shelley Duvall a sandwich? She needs fattening up.






And because I am feeling nostalgic today, a link to an old post of mine involving both nuzzling and snowfall.

Happy Thanksgiving.


It's Indescribably Beautiful

Sulfurous

The Word of the Day for November 26 is "sulfurous."

sulfurous: (adjective)

1. Of, related to, or containing sulfur or derived from sulfur
2. Harsh or corrosive in tone
3. Of, related to, or dealing with the fire of hell

Synonyms: acid, blistering, caustic, vitriolic, sulphurous, acrid, acerbic, bitter, virulent

Usage: Her sulfurous denunciation of the governor was aired on the news that evening.

Relevance to my life: If I had had my eyes open, I would have known that he was no good, uttering poisoned words on sulfurous breath; I should have, at the very least, taken notice of the horns sprouting from his head, but, blinded by an excess of emotion, I fell for him, his subtle flattery and intoxicating presence. The years have slipped past, but still I get a not-so-unpleasant shiver when I think of my time with him.

In honor of other fiendish men out there:


"I'm a Humanist."
I love this movie. I love the twist.





"You will live."
I'll take any opportunity to watch my second-favorite Swedish actor and my all-time favorite villain Peter Stormare even if it is yet another film with Keanu Reeves





"I am always open, even on Christmas."
Viggo, my favorite actor.








Now for some dirty rotten scoundrels:


"Ve must try something a little more stringent."
I'd forgotten how funny this movie was

Portentous

The Word of the Day for November 25 is "portentous."

portentous:(adjective)

1. Of great or ominous significance
2. Marked by pompousness; pretentiously weighty.

Synonyms:

1. Ominous, foreboding, fateful
2. Overblown, pompous, grandiloquent, pontifical

Usage: His hands, large and coarse, were plentifully bedecked with rings; and he wore a heavy gold watch-chain, with a bundle of seals of portentous size, and a great variety of colors, attached to it.

Relevance to my life: It appears that I am blind to the portentous signs which precede disater; time and again I am struck dumb with shock at what unfolds in my life. Others ask, "How could you not have known it was coming?" and I have no answer. Unlike in the movies, there is no ominous leitmotiv to clue me in when the shark is on my trail.

Speaking of portentous leitmotivs, here are some of my favorite musical themes which presage disaster:




Darth vader's Theme (Imperial March )
I love how in the newer trilogy, as Anakin gets older and suffers, you hear the strains of this theme developing.







Jaws, baby
My kids love it when I sing this theme as I wave a forkful of food in front of them. It's a good way to get them to eat food which they find repellent. Even the 9 year-old gets a kick out of it. Yes, we are silly.







The Isengard/Uruk-hai theme from LOTR
The Lord of the Rings has such a developed use of leitmotivs, it's almost Wagnerian, but I love it. It offers that extra textural element to the feel of the story.







Psycho
Ok, this is portentous only for a second or so before the knife plunges, but still. Good music.







The Exorcist
This theme creeped me out before I even saw the movie. Whenever I hear it I still get the shivers.









There are so many more, but I can't think of any others at the moment.

Cockeyed

The Word of the Day for November 24 is "cockeyed."

cockeyed: (adjective)

1. Turned or twisted toward one side.
2. Foolish; ridiculous; absurd.
3. Askew; crooked.
4. Intoxicated; drunk.

Synonyms: askew, awry, lopsided, wonky

Usage: He noticed that his tie was cockeyed and made sure to straighten it before meeting with the company executives.

Relevance to my life: His cockeyed view of events, which were at odds with my own understanding of them led me to marvel that two people could see the same situation from such diametrically opposing viewpoints. It's one thing to have slight differences in narrative, but when the facts are so utterly contradictory, one has to wonder if sanity (or lack thereof), or simple spiteful grudges color perspectives..

Cockeyed Optimist from South Pacific
I could never be mistaken for a cockeyed optimist; a clear-eyed cynic, perhaps.




I'm Gonna Wash that Man Right Out of my Hair (also from South Pacific)
Indeed this is what I should be doing. Maybe when I dye my hair today...




Edelweiss
It's a Rogers and Hammerstein morning here Chez Babs. I tried to find the clip of this song where the von Trapps sang it at the national festival and the audience was singing along, but couldn't find it.




I Can't Say No
Oh my. How timely...and eerily familiar





Shall We Dance?
This is a great scene.Yul Brynner was magnificent, a great example of bald being sexy.





Getting to Know You
I was in this musical once and I was the principal fan dancer with Anna in this scene. That was fun. I think I still have my fan somewhere. The choreography sessions were fun as we were learning Thai dance steps. The dance begins at 2:46.

Antsy

The Word of the Day for November 23 is "antsy."

antsy: (adjective) Nervous and unable to relax.

Synonyms: fidgety, fretful, itchy

Usage: The long wait made the children antsy.

Relevance to my life: So antsy was I from the waiting and "not knowing" this past week, that I acted precipitously and sent a message which I thought was innocuous. Not so, it seems, judging by the reaction it provoked; though looking at it dispassionately, I can say that if something so small as a message could induce an overreaction on such a scale, perhaps I am not the one with an issue here. Nevertheless, I still feel like a douchebag.

Whenever I get antsy, I have a number of different means of coping, some are better than others. One of the less harmless coping mechanisms is cinematherapy, when I reach for one of several favorite movies, depending on my need for stupid humor (Super Troopers), some epic tale of hope with a lot of death and destruction (all 10 hours of the Lord of the Rings) or my need for a cleansing cry (Waking Ned Devine).



The broken string
A great scene from Waking Ned Devine





To the King!
This ride of the Rohirrim from the Two Towers is one of the more visually stunning scenes in a movie with amazing shots, but there's just something about the image of all those riders flooding down the mountain with the sunlight spilling after them which stuns me every time I see it.





Canada, eh? Almost made it.
For pure juvenile, smutty humor nothing beats Super Troopers. I can't even begin to count the number of times I've watched this movie.







...backed up a bit and continued...









So, which movie should I go for today? I could go see the new James Bond, but then I'd have to actually get dressed. Hmm.

Extempore

The Word of the Day for November 22 is "extempore."

extempore: (adjective) Spoken, carried out, or composed with little or no preparation or forethought.

Synonyms: ad-lib, extemporaneous, extemporary, impromptu, off-the-cuff, offhand, offhanded, unrehearsed.

Usage: The class performed an extempore skit that condense the complex plot of Shakespeare's Hamlet into a single, 15-minute act.

Relevance to my life: The biggest fight we had started out as a complaint about the division of household labor and ended up with an extempore rant about what I was really like as a person. From cleaning the kitty litter to the defects of my soul? That's quite a tangent.

Sorry, no video clips today. Maybe later if I feel like it.

Remiss

The Word of the Day for November 21 is "remiss."

remiss: (adjective)

1. Lax in attending to duty.
2. Exhibiting carelessness or slackness.

Synonyms: delinquent, derelict, neglectful

Usage: I had been remiss in the fulfillment of my obligations and failed to pay my bills on time, so my landlord evicted me.

Relevance to my Life: I was remiss in attending to anything but the most basic daily tasks of taking care of myself when I lapsed into that depression after my son died. For the first few days, my focus was on taking one solid breath after another in order to keep from screaming. Some people urged me and my husband to throw ourselves into work or other mindless activities in order to soldier through the roughest times, but that was inconceivable.

Ha! I can't think of the word "inconceivable" without leaping straight to The Princess Bride.



Inconceivable!






Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You Killed my father. Prepare to die.
As big a crush as I had on Cary Elwes, I think I like Mandy Patinkin more.






Wuv, Twoo Wuv
And I know I posted this clip in a bulletin earlier this week, but this is perhaps the funniest wedding scene ever.





My Awful Wedded Wife
Oh, except perhaps for this one:





You may wonder why sometimes I post something painful in the "relevance to my life" section and then go on to add funny, random or stupid things in the same post. Well I would be remiss in my duties as a person if I gave the impression that my life is nothing but pain 24/7.

Although the dark shit has provided me with ample fodder for writing, it is my ability to laugh and see something funny in almost any situation, even when it's dark humor, that has been my saving grace.

Besides, I try to stay true to my random train of thought. :)

Veer

The Word of the Day for November 20 is "veer."

veer (verb)

1. To turn aside from a course, direction of purpose.
2. To shift clockwise in direction, as from north to northeast. Used of the wind.
3. Nautical To change the course of a ship by turning the stern to the wind while advancing to windward; wear ship.

Synonyms: curve, cut, sheer, slew, swerve, trend

Usage: The car veered sharply to the left at the intersection and narrowly missed hitting a pedestrian.

Relevance to my Life: I used to have a pretty clear idea of what I envisioned for my future; extensive travel, living and working overseas; a PhD in Linguistics; publication of my fiction. Looking back from my current vantage point up on my ledge, I can see that my life did not veer off-course as much as it seemed to jump the rails, blaze through land for which I had no map, and, at last, careen out of control down a steep hill headed straight for a carnival filled with frolicking children, petting zoo animals, and for some reason, a conference of Bishops. Don't ask, even I don't know where that came from.

In homage to the nautical meaning of the verb, I thought I'd hunt down some ship-related clips this morning.


The sinking of the Andrea Gail
Try as he might, there was no veering from that rogue wave.




Huge waves
Sure, a cruise ship is big, but the ocean is bigger! Hope they're stocked with Dramamine!
Note: turn down your sound- the noise from the helicopter is loud




White Squall, or as I like to call it: "Boot Camp on a Boat for Over-priviledged White Boys"
Oh sure, Mr. Master and Commander, it's all fun and games until your windjammer's broadsided by a rogue wave and your wife dies...




Ok, I have a thing for submarines and submarine movies. I don't know why.

Anyway, I love The Hunt for Red October (the second greatest submarine movie ever*), and this is my second favorite scene from the movie. My favorite scene is the first Crazy Ivan scene, which goes on to shift scenes between the two subs as Ramius talks in his cabin with his XO. Edit: It's not the second Crazy Ivan scene when Ryan is on the Dallas, like I first wrote. I just watched it again. Sorry!

Edit 2: Ok, the second Crazy Ivan scene is awesome too.

I have to say though, that as much as I love Sean Connery, he has one of the worst accents in Russian I have ever heard. The award for the Worst Accent in Russian Ever goes to a classmate of mine from Texas. Holy Christ, it was enough to make your ears bleed!

Anyway, enough of my rambling.


You arrogant ass! You've killed US!







*The greatest submarine movie ever is, of course, Das Boot, subtitled, NOT dubbed!

Inanimate

The Word of the Day for November 19 is "inanimate."

inanimate: (adjective)

1. Not having the qualities associated with active, living organisms.
2. Not animated or energetic; dull.
3. Grammar Belonging to the class of nouns that stand for nonliving things.

Synonyms: pulseless, breathless

Usage: I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body.

Relevance to my life: The first weekend after he moved out, I mostly sat in the dark and drank, slowly morphing into some oddly-shaped projection out of the couch, deadening all sensations, rendering myself mute and inanimate; even my breathing seemed to stop as I slipped into a listless, leaden state of deferred shock.

And now, the award for the Best Inanimate Object Skit goes to...




I love the Muppet Show!



In trying to pick my favorite Muppet Show moment, I found that I couldn't choose between the Swedish Chef's doughnut and lobster skits, so here they both are:


Making doughnuts





Cooking lobsters

Saltation

The Word of the Day for November 18 is "saltation."

saltation (noun)

1. A light, self-propelled movement upwards or forwards.
2. Discontinuous movement, transition, or development; advancement by leaps.
3. Genetics A single mutation that drastically alters the phenotype.
Synonyms: leaping, bounce, bound, spring Usage: The kangaroo's effortless saltation was balletic and graceful. Relevance to my life: I imagine that there are some of you out there who are saying to yourselves, "My Christ, she's doing it again," as you watch each enormous saltation take me ever closer to the edge of disaster. Forget talking me down off my ledge, I'm going to need a crew fitted out with rappelling gear and a straight-jacket and 500 mg of Thorazine for me. What it is NOT: "salutation" as in that time honored cliché, "Greetings and saltations to you my friends!" wrong It's "greetings and salutations."

Speaking of rappelling gear, rock climbing and um, mountains, this scene always gives me nightmares.

Ok, never mind. I was going to put up the opening scene from Cliffhanger, but I just watched it again and, it's upsetting. I guess you could say that I have no problem suspending disbelief with some movies.

Damn. It's going to be Nightmare-City for me tonight, I can just tell, and I'm already starting the day exhausted because Littler Kid was sick last night and had me up, um, pretty much the whole time, and she's probably going to stay home again unless her fever goes down, her cough goes away and she stops puking.

Also, a totally weird aside: I had the word gallimaufry in my head when I woke up from my final doze this morning.

Am I not just the oddest person you've ever met?

Tangential

The Word of the Day for November 17 is "tangential."

tangential: (adjective)

1. Of, relating to, or moving along or in the direction of a tangent.
2. Merely touching or slightly connected.
3. Only superficially relevant; divergent.

Synonym: digressive

Usage: His tangential anecdote added much-needed humor to the talk, though some found the digressions tiresome.

Relevance to my life: The tangential asides and video clips in my blogs only scratch the surface of my whacked-out train of thought, and may appear to be completely irrelevant to you, the Reader, but they make perfect sense if you can follow my bizarre stream of consciousness thought processes.

Alrighty, I can't think "tangential" without thinking "tangent" (you know, like in math), and I can't think about math without thinking about transcendental numbers, which brings me to everyone's favorite transcendental number, pi π.

It's also a movie by Darren Aronovsky. Whenever I watch it, it blows my mind a little more.







Also good is Life of Pi, which mentions pi the number only tangentially.




If you want a book about the history of π, I would suggest The History of Pi.




If you have geeky tendencies like I do, then this next March 14, let's get together and celebrate Pi Day


Pi Song




Finally, my favorite math-related images:






























Oh my God, I laugh to the point of crying every single time I read those!


Have a great day, everyone!

Progeny

The Word of the Day for November 7 is "progeny."

progeny: (noun) One born of, begotten by, or derived from another.

Synonyms: issue, offspring

Usage: He was naturally a very nervous, shuddering sort of little fellow, this bread-faced steward; the progeny of a bankrupt baker and a hospital nurse.

Relevance to my life: People remark about the likeness between the eldest of my progeny and me; indeed, one of the kid's nicknames is Mini-Me.

Did someone say Mini-Me?


You and I





Zip it!
Here we see Dr. Evil interact with his other, less-appreciated member of his progeny.
I do the "Zip it!" schtick with my kids and it sends them off into giggling-hysterics.

Putrefaction

The word of the day for November 6 is "putrefaction."

putrefaction:: (noun)

1. Decomposition of organic matter, especially protein, by microorganisms, resulting in production of foul-smelling matter.
2. Moral perversion; impairment of virtue and moral principles.

Synonyms: depravation, depravity, degeneracy, corruption

Usage: The country had fallen into a state of moral putrefaction, with corruption running rampant throughout the government ranks.

Relevance to my life: The stench of putrefaction wafting up from beneath the driver's seat of my car alerted me to the location of the missing sippy cup. The apple juice inside now swam with colonies of mold, floating in the cloudy juice like hideous black and green jellyfish.

Mmm, putrefaction. What a pleasant word. It even sounds repugnant. Thus far, my searches on Youtube under "putrefaction" have yielded a slew of death metal videos. Ha! How original.

I could do something concerned with moral putrefaction.

The first thing that leaps to mind when I think of moral putrefaction, other than televangelists, is the Marquis de Sade. That brings me to Peter Weiss's play-within-a-play, The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade, more commonly known as Marat/Sade.

Then there is the movie Quills, also about the Marquis's stay in the asylum. If I'm not mistaken, there was some scene in that movie which prompted me to scream, "I wish I could un-see that! Gah!" Fortunately, I've blanked it out, so I couldn't tell you what it was, though I suspect it involved a big pot of lye.


Quills trailer




Marat/Sade

Jesus, these people are crazy!

Imprimatur

The Word of the Day for November 5 is "imprimatur."

imprimatur: (noun) Formal and explicit approval.

Synonyms: endorsement, sanction

Usage: The candidate's campaign was bolstered by the imprimatur of New York's governor.

Relevance to my life: My imprimatur was unnecessary; he was hell-bent on leaving, so he left.

I am cranky and my head hurts this morning. I can't think of any video clips to add, so here it is - a very short WOTD blog entry.

Opine

The Word of the Day for November 4 is "opine."

opine: (verb) Express one's opinion openly and without fear or hesitation.

Synonyms: sound off, speak out, speak up

Usage: "I dare say it is all for the best," opined Mrs. Munt.

Relevance to my life: It may appear to some that I opine at length about what gets under my skin when in fact, I feel as though I have been biting my tongue in half, holding back what I really think.

Happy Election Day.

How ironic, considering the fact that if politicians really expressed their true opinions instead of pandering to the widest possible voter base, few of them would make it higher than city dog-catcher.

What? Cynical... me?

---

WD-40 or Duct Tape Can Fix Anything

In all my years as an active voter, I have never experienced what I did today.I got to my polling station, located conveniently two doors down from my house, just after it opened at 6 am to see a long line and the news crew from News Channel Nine. I'd expected the line, even the news crew, but not the snafus.

My polling place is home to two districts in a single ward. There were two old-fashioned lever-type voting machines, one for each district; one electronic, touch-screen machine which could be used for registered voters in either district; finally a stack of emergency paper ballots.

The electronic voting machine was not yet online, the were waiting some code, and the voting machine for my district was not working: the levers would not go down. So we stood there and watched our line grow.

Tempers flared a bit when one annoyed voter opined that the reporter should stop being part of the problem by merely reporting the news instead of being an agent of change. Repeated calls to the board of elections yielded busy signals or interminable phone trees.

We had a man there from the Democratic party charged to observe the process and watch for irregularities. It's thanks to him, I believe, that the official voting machine repairman finally showed up at 7:15 with his magic can of WD-40 to remedy the situation.

So it was that at 7:26, almost an hour anad a half after I got there, I cast my vote.

Doyen/Doyenne

The Word of the Day for November 3 is "doyen/doyenne."

doyen: (noun) A man who is the eldest or senior member of a group.

doyenne: (noun) A woman who is the eldest or senior member of a group.

Synonyms: elder, senior

Relevance to my life: One girl in my class, I believe,  had been held back once or had started Kindergarten later than the rest of us, so in comparision to the rest of us she was huge, and she knew it. She also tended toward the bully end of the spectrum, so in no time at all she had taken over the class as de facto leader: The doyenne of our class at Borough Elementary School.

Since November is NanNoWriMo, and this means I will be aiming for an average of 2,000 words a day, I will also go out of my way to include the word of the day in each day's work as a little challenge to myself.

Ok, about "doyen/doyenne," I have heard the feminine form of the word before: on NPR, one of the commentators used to introduce a gardening correspondent, Ketzel Levine, as "The Doyenne of Dirt." I have never head the male form used before today.

Today's video clips feature two period dramas, Brideshead Revisited and, what else, Pride and Prejudice.

In the following clip from Brideshead Revisited, the alluded-to-Mr. Samgrass could be considered a doyen. This is a pivotal, yet subtle scene. It provides a lot of background info to allow things to fall into place and also foreshadows what's to come.


Charles and Lady Marchmain

I can't think of a better example of a doyenne than the wretched Lady Catherine de Bourgh from Pride and Prejudice.

This sums her up perfectly.



The Piano Scene