This Week in Word of the Day/1-20-13
jubilarian \joo-buh-LAIR-ee-uhn\, noun:
A person who celebrates or has celebrated a jubilee, as a nun observing 25 or more years of religious life.
Andy was a quiet icon. Wilting, shy, yet possessing a mysterious gravity that dominated any room. He seemed ever-retreating in social conflict, yet his single-minded pursuit of fame was a force of nature that devastated every obstacle that stood in Andy’s way. He was not a bad person, he was deeply loved by his friends, but they also knew that he would destroy a career with a smile, soft apology, and insistence on having lunch the next day. He was the ultimate underdog that won his bone through shrewd maneuvering and sacrifice, and he guarded that treasure bitterly because he knew how much the world resented him for having the gall to win. So, as the jubilarians at the grand spectacles he called “art happenings” all angled for his precious time and attention, they crawled over one another like rats scrambling to gnaw at the supple flesh of a fresh corpse. They wanted to ingest Andy’s magic in the foolish hope of replicating the miracle of his fame.
shindy \SHIN-dee\, noun:
1. A row; rumpus.
2. A shindig.
Always a lively and eventful shindy, Jeff’s birthdays became legend over the last four years thanks to a mostly hands-off approach taken by his parents. As long as the boys kept the noise low, the revelers could get away with anything inside the house or across the sleepy suburban neighborhood through all hours of the night.
Preparations began early on Saturday morning as his three closest friends lugged over piles of paper they’d been hording for weeks. That paper would, over the course of four hours, be transformed into four trash bags of confetti. 48 rolls of toilet paper and five cans of shaving cream were purchased from the local grocery store and two video tapes were smuggled from Jason’s stepfather’s secret stash for late night viewing once Jeff’s parents were safely asleep.
They just knew the night was going to be epic, but they didn’t count on Old Man Sanderson and his trusty bloodhound.
Camelot \KAM-uh-lot\, noun:
1. Any idyllic place or period, especially one of great happiness.
2. The legendary site of King Arthur’s palace and court, possibly near Exeter, England.
3. The glamorous ambience of Washington, D.C., during the administration of President John F. Kennedy, 1961–63.
Through a vicious coup involving intrigue, blackmail, and aggressive negotiations, Samantha ushered in a new ruling class in the spring semester of her junior year at Midland High School. Marked by peace and abundance, the regime change was embraced by the principal’s office and met little resistance from the PTA.
As the school year came to a close, she declared the new cool kids’ table “Camelot” and vowed to govern the many social circles of Midland with a firm, yet understanding hand. Sadly, Samantha’s once tightly bound clique unraveled when her boyfriend and varsity quarterback transferred to a 6A school over the summer in hopes of boosting his national football ranking. Losing her king and watching her knights begin to splinter off in petty power grabs, Samantha was left with no other choice but to lure the “stoners” and “gearheads” into her ranks as secret operatives and institute a reign of terror marked by physical intimidation, rampant “TP”ing, election tampering, computer hacking, grade fixing, and advanced interrogation through the dreaded swirlie.
hypnopompic \hip-nuh-POM-pik\, adjective:
Of or pertaining to the semiconscious state prior to complete wakefulness.
The boy was lost inside his mind. Perpetually in a hypnopompic state, he was just alert enough to respond to the outside world, but deeply insulated so he would never absorb it’s cold and brutal nature.
“I do not understand what love is,” he said suddenly in the middle of class. The teacher was stunned to hear his small voice, so didn’t think to hush him.
“But once I tried to walk a bike carefully down a hill. I lost control and couldn’t stop it from rolling down the steep path. Rather than letting go, I jumped on the seat and rode with no fear of crashing. Love may not be like that, but it should be.”
preconcert \pree-kuhn-SURT\, verb:
1. To arrange in advance or beforehand, as by a previous agreement.
adjective:
1. Preceding a concert: a preconcert reception for sponsors.
As outlined in exhaustive detail within the Rules and Guidelines to Nobility and Chivalry for the Knights of Upper Middle New Jersey State, acting Captain of the Royal Guard was solely responsible for the preconcert of casual sustenance ahead of any warring party. Sir Ryan Getslaidalot spent all his allowance at the video arcade and his mom wouldn’t give him more, so he only showed up with a stale loaf of bread and an almost empty tub of peanut butter, so was demoted to “common knave”.
vertex \VUR-teks\, noun:
1. The highest point of something; apex; summit; top: the vertex of a mountain.
2. Anatomy, Zoology. The crown or top of the head.
3. Craniometry. The highest point on the midsagittal plane of the skull or head viewed from the left side when the skull or head is in the Frankfurt horizontal.
4. Astronomy. A point in the celestial sphere toward which or from which the common motion of a group of stars is directed.
5. Geometry. A. The point farthest from the base: the vertex of a cone or of a pyramid. B. A point in a geometrical solid common to three or more sides. C. The intersection of two sides of a plane figure.
Twenty years and 86 days. $46,000. Countless lost friendships. One failed marriage. His left pinky. The rocket cost Kevin so much, but he built it all the same. Three minutes after liftoff, the sputtering flames gasped out their last and Kevin felt thrust ebb as he reached the vertex of his lonely flight, just poking the fire engine red cone of the rocket into the upper atmosphere. He floated above the blue expanse for what seemed like hours before gravity finally tugged him back home. He let out a triumphant howl as the rocket tumbled toward the ocean. He’d never bothered with a parachute or any hope for a soft landing. The way up was just to prove he could, but the way down was all his.
also-ran \AWL-soh-ran\, noun:
1. Informal. A person who loses a contest, election, or other competition.
2. Sports. A. (In a race) a contestant who fails to win or to place among the first three finishers. B. An athlete or team whose performance in competition is rarely, if ever, a winning or near-winning one.
3. Informal. A person who attains little or no success: For every great artist there are a thousand also-rans.
“There was a time when I charged at life, I remember it so clearly. Brash, beautiful and invincible. But now…”
Jerry smirked as he brought the long, ivory cigarette holder to his thinning lips. The purple and silver-flecked lipstick left a smudge, which he admired for a moment before releasing the smoke with a heavy sigh.
“Now I stumble forward down the slope into oblivion. ‘The greatest of the also-rans!’ That’s what Terry calls me. He is trying to be sweet, I know, but it is a title I could live without.”
