Opera

OPERA, n. A play representing life in another world, whose inhabitants have no speech but song, no motions but gestures and no postures but attitudes. All acting is simulation, and the word simulation is from simia, an ape; but in opera the actor takes for his model Simia audibilis (or Pithecanthropos stentor)--the ape that howls.

The actor apes a man--at least in shape;
The opera performer apes an ape.

2009 Update: A coincidence of sheet music with a libretto, typically tragic. The term derives from the Latin plural of OPUS, meaning "works" or is, perhaps, a durable misprint of "ONERA."

Oppose

OPPOSE, v.t. To assist with obstructions and objections.

How lonely he who thinks to vex

With badinage the Solemn Sex!

Of levity, Mere Man, beware;

None but the Grave deserve the Unfair.

Percy P. Orminder

2009 Update: To make a martyr or to make a satyr.

Half-man-half-beasts took up their seats

In the parliament of ancient Crete's

Under good King Minos' aegis.

The floor lay still, and what a thrill,

The King would sing in elden trill

"No law will e'er besiege us!

"So long as human source and rump of horse

Or goat-legs, with bull's heads, of course

Are joined two-in-one-creature-

The caucus lasts, and pretty fast

The opposition's votes are cast

Consensus "neighs"- a democratic feature!"

-Herodotus

Advice to my Nephew, Stevie, on his fifth birthday

Whenever you go dinosaurin',

At school, at home or someplace foreign.

The important thing is to select

The mighty lizard most correct

To roar and gnash in just the way you're feeling.

When locked behind your bedroom door,

Consider the great allosaur-

A giant mouth with giant tail,

Chomping leaves along the trail

And banging your head on the (forest) ceiling.

And when you're feeling wild and fleet,

The pterodactyl's pretty sweet

Hunting, tackling, and tearing clothes

Goes well with friends and knives for toes.

On the playground, none are more appealing.

But then there's days of youth or age

When nothing can contain our rage.

A mighty predator is due

And that T-Rex must now be you,

Tearing flesh at liberty

Scaring prey right up a tree-

A gnashing, thrashing, thick-skulled daemon

To pursue, subdue and chew on Eamon.

DINOSAUR, n. coll. A lumbering, unadaptable relic, such as an uncle.

Happy birthday, Stevie

Otherwise

OTHERWISE, adv. No better.

2009 Update: Inevitably.

Outsider

OUTSIDER, n. A person austerely censorious of that which he is unable to do or become. In commerce and finance, a member of the army of provision.

2009 Update: Every member of congress, each American journalist, the entire class of working people, any accountant, police officer, preacher, pundit, populist, layabout, roustabout, goldbrick, drunkard, teetotaler, academic, artist, manager, managee, social worker, malcontent, discontent, pollyanna, lama, rabbi, imam, infant, decedent, defendant, prosecuting attorney, judge, juror, executioner, monarchist, patriot, jihadist, bartender or, in the end, every individual member of the great global village of outcasts and separatists as well as their cats. All but the dog.

The Reformation of Wolfshausen

Teil Acht-Und-Vierzig

To hear this week's reading, pull up to the warm fireplace.

To read this week's episode, sit by the candle.

The story so far is here.

Scarabee

SCARABEE, n. The same as scarabaeus.

He fell by his own hand
Beneath the great oak tree.
He'd traveled in a foreign land.
He tried to make her understand
The dance that's called the Saraband,
But he called it Scarabee.
He had called it so through an afternoon,
And she, the light of his harem if so might be,
Had smiled and said naught. O the body was fair to see,
All frosted there in the shine o' the moon —
Dead for a Scarabee
And a recollection that came too late.
O Fate!
They buried him where he lay,
He sleeps awaiting the Day,
In state,
And two Possible Puns, moon-eyed and wan,
Gloom over the grave and then move on.
Dead for a Scarabee!
—Fernando Tapple

2009 Update: A dung beetle touched with religion..

Seine

SEINE, n. A kind of net for effecting an involuntary change of environment. For fish it is made strong and coarse, but women are more easily taken with a singularly delicate fabric weighted with small, cut stones.

The devil casting a seine of lace,

(With precious stones 'twas weighted)

Drew it into the landing place

And its contents calculated.

All souls of women were in that sack —

A draft miraculous, precious!

But ere he could throw it across his back

They'd all escaped through the meshes.

—Baruch de Loppis

2009 Update: A French river which separates the dissolute from the industrious Parisian- a distinction too speculative to be made along any other course.

The Aesthete and the Chimpanzee, A Fable for Children

Once upon a time, an aesthete and a chimpanzee sat down for tea and a continental breakfast. In the course of the conversation, the topic of religion naturally arose. The aesthete argued passionately that the soul of religion itself is not faith but ritual. The chimpanzee listened intently until, perhaps bored with the lecture, she leapt onto the tea service and did a back-flip, demonstrating her intellectual elitism.

HAUTEUR, n. Speaker envy.

Self-Evident

SELF-EVIDENT, adj. Evident to one's self and to nobody else.

2009 Update: Contemporary.