Exhilaration

The Word of the Day for April 20 is "exhilarating."

exhilarating: (adjective) Making lively and cheeful.

Synonyms: stimulating

Usage: Countless climbers flocked to the region to experience the exhilarating effects of the mystical mountain air.

Relevance to my life: There is nothing so exhilarating as that mad dash to bathroom holding a pre-puking child in my arms, praying fervently that I can make it before the spewing starts.

Parenthood
Parenthood is fraught with perils like sudden projectile vomiting, sexually precocious teens, and mass birthday parties.








My Parents are Aliens
Ha! Game shows can be addictive.








Rusty Shares a Beer with Dad
Clark means well.








Cousin Eddie and Hamburger Helper
Thanks to this movie, I laugh every time I walk past Hamburger Helper in the grocery store.








That 70s Show
Red & Kitty finally bust them in the basement.








Holy Crap!
@ 1:00 mark is my favorite Red Foreman line.

Clangor

The Word of the Day for April 17 is "clangor."

clangor: (noun)

1. A loud resonant repeating noise.


2. A loud racket; a din.

Synonyms: clanks, clash, crash

Usage: Then, upon this stillness, there suddenly broke a tremendous clangor of sounds.

Relevance to my life: One memorable parenting moment came when I was recovering from a triple shot of The Flu, Bronchitis and Pneumonia, only to be awoken by a terrible clangor from the laundry room. The ensuing shitstorm was legendary.

The Trumpet's Loud Clangor
A little Handel to soothe your Friday








The Trumpet Shall Sound
More trumpet, more Handel.








Hayden Trumpet Concerto, Mvt 1
The trumpet is almost bigger than the kid is, but he blows the hell out of it.








Brandenburg Concerto No. 2
More classic trumpet playing

Persona

The Word of the Day for April 16 is "persona."

persona: (noun) The role that one assumes or displays in public or society; one's public image or personality, as distinguished from the inner self.

Synonyms: image

Usage: The singer's larger-than-life persona belied the fear and insecurity she truly felt.

Relevance to my life: At the end of the semester, my class went out for drinks and I do believe I shocked some people. I had let my Serious Student persona slip off, let my hair down and was Just Me. Although there were no beer funnels or table-dancing, I could see that my classmates weren't expecting the Real Barbara.

You Don't Know Me
I really am surprised how many times I've felt this. Maybe I'm bad about letting people see who I really am. Or, maybe people are idiots.








The Breakfast Club
Sometimes we make our personas ourselves, other times we're type-cast. Those seem to be the hardest to break.








The Doors
Larger than life, he was. For God's sake they have a memorial plaque at Barney's Beanery where he once got banned for pissing on the bar!








The Marquise de Merteuil and Valmont
This scene sets up the next one. The Marquise had a reputation, a public persona of the model lady of French nobility when in reality she was as corrupt and devious as the worst scoundrel. She was still my favorite character in both the book and the movie.








The Fall of the Marquise
Here, her persona is shot to Hell. *sniff* Nobody likes her anymore!

Peck

The Word of the Day for April 15 is "peck."

peck: (noun)

1. A large quantity; a lot.


2. A unit of dry volume or capacity in the U.S. Customary System equal to 8 quarts or approximately 537.6 cubic inches.


3. A container holding or measuring a peck.

Synonyms: good deal, hatful, lot, passel, mint, slew, spate, was, stack, raft, mountain, pile, plenty, mass, batch, heap, deal, flock, pot, mess

Usage: The class clown was sent to the principal's office, where he found himself in a peck of trouble.

Relevance to my life: One of my favorite expressions, which I heard from the s2bx one time when we were washing potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner, is "You gotta eat a peck of dirt before you die."

The Bucket List
"Eat a peck of dirt" is not on my official Bucket List, but skydiving is.








Kopi Luwak
I have laughed like this. *crosses off my list*








"You fooled 'em all."
A good scene from my favorite Jack Nicholson movie








Andy plays Mozart
One of the best scenes from my favorite Morgan Freeman movie.








Wild Bill
Another excellent movie adaptation of a Stephen King novel. That Wild Bill's a pissah.








The Shining ending
This brings us back to Jack Nicholson. Full-circle, how lovely.

Chafe

The Word of the Day for April 14 is "chafe."

chafe: (verb)

1. To rub and cause irritation or friction.
2. To feel irritated or impatient

Synonyms: scratch, rub, fray, fret

Usage: The wool sweater chafed against my neck, and I longed to change into something more comfortable.

Relevance to my life: All through High School, I chafed at the restrictions placed on me by my parents but still managed to appear obedient because I had no choice; when I got to college, however, with no supervision but my own, I exploded.

Bluto's Advice
I know El Borracho will like this.









Shout
I actually did go to a toga party one year. I think I had purplish paisley sheets.









Paradise by the dashboard light
Speaking of songs that we used to dance to when drunk...









Twist and Shout
...and here's another one!









Shake your tailfeather
Speaking of fun dance scenes from movies...









I love to boogie
A great compilation of dance clips to an awesome T Rex song.

Derisory

The Word of the Day for April 13 is "derisory."

derisory: (adjective) Incongruous; inviting ridicule.

Synonyms: absurd, cockeyed, idiotic, laughable, ludicrous, nonsensical, preposterous, ridiculous

Usage: The shareholders dismissed the lowball offer as derisory.

Relevance to my life: The girls first viewed my changes to their favorite recipe (boxed Mac and Cheese) as derisory, but I won them over with the homemade baked mac and cheese in the end. Lucy gave me an enthusiastic two thumbs up and said, "Gee Mommy, this is the best 'smack and cheese' ever!" Damn straight, kid.

The Battle of Wits
The Sicilian certainly thought The Dread Pirate Roberts's challenge to a battle of wits to be derisory. "Inconceivable!" Too bad for him.










The Battle of Wits in Legos
I am easily amused.









Hello, My name is Inigo Montoya...
Yet another great scene from a timeless classic.










The Wedding
"Mawwige." I can't help but snicker at weddings now.









The Most Reverend Mr. Bean
One funny wedding scene deserves another.

Stilted

The Word of the Day for April 10 is "stilted."

stilted (adjective) Stiffly or artificially formal; stiff

Synonyms: artificial, contrived, hokey

Usage: She knew no other way to express her genuine feelings than the stilted language of The Family Herald.

Relevance to my life: When I attended the welcoming reception for the Soros Foundation's Teaching Fellows in Tallinn, I remember how stilted the Estonian teachers' speech was. At first I attributed it to degrees of language fluency, but after mingling and talking to them I realized that this program was one of the first to recognize Estonia's statehood on the international scene. Intense emotion and national pride, not language inadequacy or cultural differences, choked their throats and affected their speech.

The Estonian National Anthem
I learned this song fairly early on, since people played it often. I was there from 1993-1994, shortly after their independence from Moscow. While Estonians have always maintained a strong ethnic identity quite separate from Russians, you could say that just after full independence, it was fiery and fervent.







The Finnish National Anthem
Interestingly, it is exactly the same melody. Finns and Estonians and culturally, linguistically and ethnically very closely related to one another.








Onnenpyörä
I got to watch a good deal of Finnish television when I was in Estonia. My favorite show was Wheel of Fortune in Finnish.







Conan O'Brien in Finland
Conan had some segments a few years ago where talked about his similarity to the Finnish President Tarja Halonen. He later visited Finland and visited a few television shows. Hilarity ensued.









Finland
My sentiments exactly, and I'm not being facetious. I loved visiting Finland and would like to go back again some day. It's a beautiful country and I love the sound of the language.