Talking to Ed about Trumpcare

Mr. Ed: Whoa, Wilburrr. You have a pre-existing condition?

Wilbur: Yes, I do.

Mr. Ed: I'm a bit surprised. What is it, Wilburrr?

Wilbur: Don't YOU know?

Mr. Ed: Neigh!

Wilbur: I'm talking to you aren't I? It's a mental health condition.

Mr. Ed: Can't you see a doctor about that, Wilburrrr? So you can be more...stable?

Wilbur: Not with Trumpcare. Not if the state gets a waiver to eliminate mental health coverage. I would have to pony up for it myself. I don't want to be saddled with that!

Mr. Ed: What a nightmare. But I'll be your shrink, Wilburrrr.

Wilbur: I guess you'll have to be, Ed.

Story Cubes 20 / Random Sequence / Halloween

You wave your flashlight like a magic wand, and the kid's shadow becomes a monster on the wall. You make some popcorn and cook up a story for him about aliens building the pyramids. Are they around today, he asks? You say you think so. Aliens are always here, flitting around the skies in all directions. The key to seeing them is to get under the covers and count some sheep.

You can quote me on that.

~~~

(The bold-faced words are interpreted from the images on Rory's Story Cubes)

Word of the Day: Festinate

festinate [FESS-tih-nate] (adjective, verb) [TWITO, page 53]

To move or act at high speed; hasty

"Advise the duke, where you are going, to a most festinate preparation; we are bound to the like. Our posts shall be swift and intelligent betwixt us."
--William Shakespeare, King Lear, Act III, scene 7

My mom has a dusty old upright player piano in her basement. I took a few piano lessons as a kid and used to practice on it. But I never liked playing the piano. I always preferred to insert a piano roll and let the thing play itself. It wasn't electric, though; I had to do some festinate pumping of the foot pedals to make it make it play "Melancholy Baby" or some other tin pan alley hit at the proper speed.

Random Sequence: pajock

"For thou dost know, O Damon dear, This realm dismantled was Of Jove himself, and now reigns here A very very — pajock "
--William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Act 3, scene 2

pajock (noun) = a peacock, or a vain person -- considered an ass.

Now you can call your least favorite athlete a "pajock". Or your least favorite politician....

Random Sequence: Finical

"A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats, a base proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, fifthly-worsted-stocking knave; a lilly-livered, action-taking, whoreson glass-gazing super serviceable finical rogue, one-trunk-inheriting slave."
--William Shakespeare, King Lear, Act 2, Scene 2

finical (adjective) = finicky, fussy

When Shakespeare insults, he really insults, wielding his pen like a scimitar.

Random Sequence: Quiddities and Quillets

"There's another; why may not that be the skull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddities now, his quillets, his cases, his tenures, and his tricks?"
--William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act V, Scene 1

quiddities (noun,plural of quiddity) = quibbles, objections
quillets (noun, plural of quillet) = subtle distinctions

Lawyers -- always mincing words. Unlike me, of course....

Random Sequence: skimble-skamble

"...sometimes he angers me With telling me of the moldwarp and the ant, Of the dreamer Merlin and his prophecies, And of a dragon, and a finless fish, A clip-wing’d griffin, and a moulten raven, A couching lion, and a ramping cat, And such a deal of skimble-skamble stuff, As puts me from my faith."
--William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1, Act 3, Scene 1

skimble-skamble (noun) = nonsense or rambling

I bet you're wondering what a "moldwarp" is and what a "ramping" cat is doing. Maybe later.

Random Sequence: scroyle

"By heaven, these scroyles of Angiers flout you, kings,
And stand securely on their battlements,
As in a theatre, whence they gape and point
At your industrious scenes and acts of death.
--William Shakespeare, King John, Act 2, Scene 1

scroyle (noun) = a good-for-nothing scoundrel

The quote above is from the character named "Bastard". Next time you're tempted to call someone a bastard, try calling them a scoyle instead.

Random Sequence: swoopstake

"Good Laertes,
If you desire to know the certainty
Of your dear father's death, is't writ in your revenge,
That, swoopstake, you will draw both friend and foe,
Winner and loser?"
--William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act IV, scene 5

swoopstake (adverb) = indiscriminately, without distinctions

I want to work this word into conversation and then savor all the puzzled faces.

Random Sequence: evitate

"Since therein she doth evitate and shun / A thousand irreligious
cursed hours."
--William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act V, Scene 5

evitate (verb) = to shun; to avoid

I've often wished I could levitate in order to evitate.

Random Sequence: horologe

"'Tis evermore the prologue to his sleep.
He'll watch the horologe a double set
If drink rock not his cradle."
--William Shakespeare, Othello, Act 2, Scene 7

horologe (noun) = a clock

My alarm horologe goes off at 6:30 AM. I'm tempted to call it a horrorloge.

Random Sequence: oppugnancy

"Take but degree away, untune that string,
And hark what discord follows! Each thing melts
In mere oppugnancy: the bounded waters
Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores,
And make a sop of all this solid globe...."
--William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, Act 1, Scene 3

oppugnancy (noun) = opposition; resistance

I just can't "oppug" (?) a word like this.

Random Sequence: frampold

"Now, when the credit of our town lay on it,
Now to be frampold, now to piss o'th' nettle!
Go thy ways, I'll remember thee; I'll fit thee."
--William Shakespeare, The Two Noble Kinsmen, Act III, Scene 5, line 58

frampold (adjective) = peevish, moody, disagreeable, vexatious, quarrelsome

Having a bad day? Heave a heavy sigh and say, "I'm feeling frampold today." Then enjoy the puzzled faces.

Random Sequence: serpigo

"Do curse the gout, serpigo, and the rheum / For ending thee no sooner."
--William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act III, Scene I, Line 32

serpigo (noun) = a skin eruption, like ringworm

Oh, yuck.

Random Sequence: conventicle

"Ay, all you have laid your heads together—
Myself had notice of your conventicles--
And all to make away my guiltless life."
--William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part II, Act III, Scene 1

conventicle (noun) = a secret meeting, often by people with unconventional opinions

I'm sure that, somewhere, some people are having a conventicle right now. Let's hope they're good people.

Random Sequence: hugger-mugger

"First, her father slain:
Next, your son gone; and he most violent author
Of his own just remove: the people muddied,
Thick and unwholesome in their thoughts and whispers,
For good Polonius' death; and we have done but greenly,
In hugger-mugger to inter him...."
--William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Act IV
Scene V

hugger-mugger (adjective) = secretly

Or...someone who mugs people but then gives them a hug? "Sorry, sweetie, but I need the money!"

Random Sequence: exsufflicate

"Exchange me for a goat,
When I shall turn the business of my soul
To such exsufflicate and blown surmises,
Matching thy inference."
--William Shakespeare, Othello, Act III, Scene 3

exsufflicate (adjective) = puffed up, windy, inflated

This word makes me think of a certain presidential candidate currently generating much media blather.

Random Sequence: questant

"[S]ee that you come
Not to woo honour, but to wed it; when
The bravest questant shrinks, find what you seek,
That fame may cry you loud: I say, farewell."
--William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well, Act II, Scene I

questant (noun) = a seeker, someone on a quest

Where are my keys? I'm a questant.

Random Sequence: hilding

"If your lordship find him not a hilding, hold me no more in your respect."
--William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well, Act III, Scene VI

hilding (noun) = a good-for-nothing fellow

This word is good for something -- like insulting a guy without him knowing it.

Random Sequence: lunes

"I dare be sworn
These dangerous unsafe lunes i' the king,
beshrew them!
He must be told on't, and he shall: the office
Becomes a woman best; I'll take't upon me:
If I prove honey-mouth'd let my tongue blister
And never to my red-look'd anger be
The trumpet any more."
--William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale

lunes (noun) = fits of lunacy; crazyness

I suppose you could say that loons are loony-tunes and subject to lunes.