Words, words, words

Mutterings continued.

I subscribe to A Word A Day and get interesting emails popping into my inbox telling me of words that I'd either not heard of before or should use more often. Or both. Yesterday's word was arithmancy - divination by numbers. This is very apposite as today is census day and the Bureau of Statistics will be doing its own version of arithmancy using the results. Wonder how many Jedi will turn up on this census?

Today's word is bibliomancy - divination by interpreting a passage picked at random from a book, especially from a religious book such as the Bible."Here's the step-by-step method:

1. Pick a book you trust a lot.

2. Put it on its spine, and let it fall open.

3. With your eyes closed, trace your finger to a passage.

4. Interpret the passage as your lifemap to the future.

You could even add more randomness to the process. To do that at the macro level, visit a library and pick a book at random from the shelves. At the micro level, instead of interpreting a passage, pick a single word and let it point you to your path.

Then you could try awadmancy -- divination based on words from AWAD. Focus on the question in your mind and then click here to get a random word from our archives: http://wordsmith.org/words/random.cgi"

Ok, here goes...picks Graham Chapman's autobiog "A Liar's Autobiography, Vol. VI"...and it says, "We flew to Timaru, a town about the size of my house - the only difference being that there is no seafront in Highgate and Timaru doesn't have a theatre as big as mine. We arrived with our costumes, props, and lipstick, walking down the aisle of an auditorium that held a paltry 2000, to find Humphrey Barclay, a producer not commonly known to be related to a bank. He was setting up the lighting for the evening's performance which was particularly important because it was being recorded for New Zealand Television, an organization slightly bigger that the New Zealand Navy. He was shouting at the electricians for more light. They turned all the available stage lighting up to full. He screamed at them again that this was not good enough. The cast by now was on stage, arranging props and doing a walk-through. None of us could quite understand the need for extra lighting in that we were already being blinded by the fierce glare from every part of the theatre. Humphrey, now in a frenzy, foamed at the nostrils and roared for more light. He threw off his sunglassses in anger, realised he'd been wearing them, sat down, and went puce."

It mentions 'props' twice! That must be my calling.

More 'arry sightings - a young 'arry had managed to climb onto the railing at the top of the steps near my office. 'e was having a few problems keeping 'is footing (bad enough when you only have two feet...) and kept waving 'is front four in the air at passers by. I got very close to 'im but didn't actually touch 'im - I got the Director in the next office to remove 'im. She did this by putting her arm next to 'im; 'e crawled on, went for a bit of a wander up and down the front of her shirt and she took 'im outside. Caroline told me I was very brave for getting that close.