Monday, May 29, 2006
Bianca has posted a challenge:
This is how it works: Comment on this entry and I will give you a letter. Write ten words beginning with that letter in a blog entry, including an explanation of what the word means to you and why, and then pass out letters to those who want to play along.
I have been given the letter "I":
ichthyosaur Boo and I engaged in a lengthy colloquoy one afternoon, in which we discussed our mutual anxiety for answering the question "How are you?" Most people expect no real response, and I typically answer "well," in curt manner, because, though mine is a polite enough and generally fitting answer, people more usually expect something along the lines of "good" or "great". But if caught in a mood, and depending upon to whom it is addressed, I might reply with something such as, "I haven't been eaten by a dinosaur." In my explanation to Boo, I said, "I view life as one long, unending nightmare. Unless I somehow wake up, when someone asks me how I am, I will always respond from this perspective." Ergo, one should not view my mood as a necessarily negative one, if I answer, "I haven't been eaten by a dinosaur," because if I haven't been eaten by a dinosaur, then I'm actually faring rather well, considering that my life is a never-ending nightmare. Anyhow, an ichthyosaur cannot eat me.
irascibile The mood in which I shall most likely find myself during Latin class this fall is one of irascibility, simply because my six or seven other classmates (with the lone exception of a religious studies student) are girls. They giggle and like to enjoy themselves. I, however, just want to parse things. I am no better a student than any one of them, but I require complete silence and stillness in order to concentrate, because I have the attention span of Daffy Duck.
Ira In either eighth or ninth grade, I accompanied The Father as his date when he received a ring for having served with his company for twenty years. The reception was held at a barbecue restaurant in Houston somewhere, so after dinner each employee got up from his or her seat when called to the front and stood there for a moment or two. During The Father's moment or two, a couple of his buddies poured beer in the ice cream dessert he had left sitting at his place. The Father returned, dipped his spoon into what he innocently supposed to be vanilla ice cream (ignorant entirely of the laughter his friends and I were suppressing), and gagged. One of the pranksters was named Mark, to my recollection, and the other, an older gentleman, had been introduced to me as "Ira".
igneous In eighth grade science class I recall having watched a hilarious, cheesy video about igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rock formations. I had another science teacher as my study hall monitor that year, and I believe we watched the video again during her period one especially unproductive afternoon, but this time on demand.
ignoramus I feel "ignoramus" universally serves to describe nearly everyone I have met upon moving to Lubbock, Texas.
ignominious Edward V. Gibbon used several words regularly to describe people and events when he wrote The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. He found many people, places, and things "ignominious".
irgendwo The German word for "somewhere" has for some unbeknownst reason a certain appeal I cannot articulate fully, as with the German word for "potatoes" (die Kartoffeln).
ignited In St. Louis the year after high school I lived for a time with my aunt, Laura. She loves scented candles. One afternoon I heard her come in from shopping, and a short time later, I smelled cake baking. I stomped up the stairs and cried giddily, "Aunt Laura, Aunt Laura, what kind of cake did you bake me?! When will it be ready?" She raised an eyebrow and pointed, bemused, toward a lit cookie-scented candle set on the coffee table. My shoulders limped, and I skulked back down the stairs, my excitement having been ignited and just as quickly extinguished forever.
Isaiah In sixth grade I had social studies class seated across from a Mormon boy, "Isaiah". He had starey blue eyes and very light blond hair, as, I believe, his older brothers did. Anyhow, I am still attached to his name, the sound of which I rather like.
incantation inthetimeofchimpanzeesiwasamonkey butaneinmyveinsandimouttocutthejunkie withtheplasticeyeballsspraypaintthevegetables dogfoodskullswiththebeefcakepantyhose killtheheadlightsandputitinneutral stockcarflaminwiththeloserinthecruisecontrol babysinrenowiththevitamindgotacoupleofcouchessleeponthelovesear someonekeepssayiniminsanetocomplainaboutashotgunweddingandastainonmyshirt dontbelieveeverythingthatyoubreathe... I no longer pay attention to the lyrics of this Beck song; I always repeat them as a mindless incantation of crazy rock 'n' roll spirits.
[Lauree Frances Keith concluded this diatribe at 1:04 PM]