Sideshow Star
Sideshow Star
Wordplay:
(Note: there’s a really cool Jason Mraz song called “Wordplay.” You may want to download it and listen to it as you read the rest of this column.)
A friend once said to me, “If ‘live’ spelled backwards is ‘evil,’ does that mean that it’s evil to live?”
“Only if you live backwards,” I replied.
To live backwards is impossible, of course. Ever try to eat an omelet, then cook it in the skillet, then mix the ingredients, then break the eggshells, and then finally put whole, unbroken eggs back into the refrigerator? It’s not easy. (And if you have tried this, please tell me you have the photos to prove it. I’d love to see them.)
But it is easy (and fun) to make palindromes with words like “live” and “evil.” “Rats live on no evil star,” for example. Not only is that sentence the same backwards and forwards, but it’s also true. Stars, being enormous balls of radioactive gases, are an inhospitable living environment for mammals such as rats. Rats, as far as we know, live only on the earth. (Some may have stowed away in NASA equipment, but they’re unlikely to have established colonies on Mars or the moon, what with the lack of oxygen and all. Rats love oxygen.) Whether or not the earth is evil may be debatable, but at least we can all agree that the earth is not a star.
Speaking of mammals that live on no evil star, the unsurpassed loyalty and unconditional love of a dog has caused some to remark that it is no coincidence that “dog” is “God” spelled backwards. “Dog god” is a palindrome, of course, as is “God’s dog.” Imagine God’s dog for a moment, his leash extending up into the clouds. You don’t have to imagine it; there’s an illustration of it in Ana, Nab a Banana, a terrific book of palindromes and cartoons by Craig Hansen. I know what you’re thinking, and yes, it would be more impressive if his name was Craig Giarc.
By the way, do you think God scoops the dog poop, or just zaps it and makes it disappear? Or does God turn it into a new mountain range? If that’s the case, God must walk God’s dog on other planets. Otherwise the whole earth would be nothing but mountains by now.
My personal favorite palindrome is “Mr. Owl ate my metal worm,” which I believe is from one of Jon Agee’s books of palindromes. They include Go Hang A Salami, I’m a Lasagna Hog and So Many Dynamos. His titles are palindromes, unlike Mom and Dad Are Palindromes by Mark Shulman and Adam McCauley. You can’t make a palindrome with “palindromes,” of course, because “semordnilap” is not a word.
But oranges are not the only fruit, and palindromes are not the only kind of wordplay. Take Spoonerisms . . . please. They result from mixing up two sounds in a sentence. According to The New York Public Library Literary Companion, the Reverend William Archibald Spooner (who was English) was famous for them. As when he once meant to toast “the dear old queen” and instead raised a toast to “the queer old dean.” A more modern example: Police Chief Wiggum on The Simpsons arrested Sideshow Bob and told his officers, “Bake him away, toys!”
There is also the malapropism, named for a character in a play called The Rivals. Mrs. Malaprop (whose name is a kind of wordplay; mal a propos is French for “out of place”) innocently uses wrong words that sound similar to the right words, but mean very different things. As if, for example, you meant to say, “The minister’s sermon was very profound today,” and instead reported to your grandmother that “the minister’s sermon was very profane today,” nearly giving your grandmother a heart attack. Shame on you. That’s why you should always carry a pocket dictionary.
So should Homer Simpson; he once designed a car and suggested that it have “rack and peanut steering.” He meant “pinion,” of course. Pinion is a fun word, by the way. It means all of the following: a gear, a wing, and to alter a bird’s wing so that it cannot fly. It is unrelated to opinions, or to the edible pine tree seeds known as pinyon nuts. “Pinion” is also a song by Nine Inch Nails. Listen to that one when you’re done with “Wordplay.”
There are all sorts of fun things we can do with words, from the silly sounds of onomatopoeia to the dangers of the double entendre. Play with your words today!
[http://erineschmidtsmith.com]
HELP!!!!! Im a collector, but i dunno which one to buy……?
Im having difficulties as to buy which kind of toys?
a) Sideshow 12inch action figures (Star Wars, LOTR…)
b) Hot Toys 12inch action figures (Military, Movie)
c) Lego Batman/Star Wars
Can any of the owners voice out your opinions on the toys above?
Thanks.
I would suggest the 12inch StarWars figures….i have the original Star Wars figures in their black suitcases that i collected as an teenager way back in 1977-83 and here in Australia are worth thousands of dollars, because they’re immaculate…i have them stored at an safety deposit box in my local bank due to their extreme value and yes they’re insured for an undisclosed sum….so its up to you…..
Bars the sideshow star STREET WARS
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Sideshow 12″ 1:6 1/6 Star Wars Order of the Jedi Knight General Anakin Skywalker $99.99 |
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Star Wars – 501 St. Clone Trooper – Deformed VCD – Action Figure – Sideshow $189.99 |
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STAR WARS: EPISODE 1 – SITH PROBE DROIDS (SIDESHOW) $19.98 |
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SIDESHOW TOY STAR WARS 12″ 1/6 PLO KOON JEDI ACTION FIGURE $74.95 |
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Hasbro Star Wars Attack of the Clones aotc Count Dooku MIB RARE Sideshow $19.99 |
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SIDESHOW Star Wars Mos Eisley Cantina – Nadon’s Nook Environment Episode IV $59.99 |
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Hasbro Star Wars Attack of the Clones aotc Geonosian Warrior MIB RARE Sideshow $24.99 |
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Hasbro Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back Zuckuss MIB Sideshow $22.99 |
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Sideshow Collectibles 1/6 Star Wars Darth Maul Inclusive Edition $159.99 |
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STAR WARS~YODA~JEDI MENTOR~12″ FIGURE~SIDESHOW~MIB $118.95 |
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SIDESHOW Star Wars Han Solo Premium Format Statue / Figure LE NM – MINT 2500 $249.99 |
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Sideshow STAR WARS Commander Cody 1/6 Scale Figure $100.00 |
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SIDESHOW STAR WARS CAPTAIN REX 12″ FIGURE $100.00 |
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Sideshow Star Wars 12″ COMMANDER BLY 1/6 Figure EXCLUSIVE $100.00 |
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SIDESHOW Biker Scout Bust Star Wars Statue Rare THX SS 1964 / 7500 Lucas SW $89.99 |
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Salty The Clown – I Work With Clowns All Day – Write On Wipe Off Memo Magnet $8.95 Officially Licensed Memo Magnet. Memo Magnet measures approximately 5.5″ x 8.5″…. |
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The Simpsons – The Complete Sixth Season $17.20 The classic to clunker ratio is still extraordinarily high, though The Simpsons’ sixth season could give some devoted viewers pause. The show that takes cheeky delight in mooning television convention gives us “Another Simpsons Clip Show” and its first season-ending cliffhanger, “Who Shot Mr. Burns?” And, as does Bart in “A Star Is Burns,” we should all feel a little dirty at the “cheap cartoon cr… |
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Brother John $5.00 Brother John is a fascinating example of the social-issue cinema that flourished in the early 1970s. This subtly engrossing drama posits the second coming of Christ as an Alabama-born black man named John Kane (Sidney Poitier)–a prodigal son, savior, and quiet peacemaker who can still kick ass when he needs to. Screenwriter Ernest Kinoy’s clever strategy is to embrace near-total ambiguity, inject… |
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The Elephant Man $9.98 You could only see his eyes behind the layers of makeup, but those expressive orbs earned John Hurt a well-deserved Oscar nomination for his moving portrayal of John Merrick, the grotesquely deformed Victorian-era man better known as The Elephant Man. Inarticulate and abused, Merrick is the virtual slave of a carnival barker (Freddie Jones) until dedicated London doctor Frederick Treves (Anthony H… |
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Rock Star Microphone – Child Std. .x{color:#83C22D;margin:0px;font-size:12px}.y{color:#A56EBA}ROCK STAR MICROPHONERock Star Divas Costume Accessories(Item #DIVA02)Size: Child Std.Includesmicrophone glitter makeup This Rock Star Microphone (fake) is black and includes a tube of glitter gell makeup. One size fits most…. |
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American Sideshow $9.30 NEW BOOK ! May have remainder marks. Our books are shrink-wrapped, and carefully packaged to assure your book will arrive in good condition. SATISFACTION GUARANTEED… |
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Star Wars: 1,000 Collectibles: Memorabilia and Stories from a Galaxy Far, Far Away $5.00 Memorabilia and stories from a galaxy far, far away…1000 collectibles from Star Wars…. |
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And now, for the main act… TD record great sideshow, Grey Cup the real star; TD record great sideshow, Grey Cup the real star.(Sports): An article from: Winnipeg Free Press $9.95 This digital document is an article from Winnipeg Free Press, published by Thomson Gale on July 29, 2007. The length of the article is 719 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.Citation DetailsTitle: And now, f… |
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The Simpsons Political Party, Boxed Set [VHS] $14.99 Two of the best politically themed Simpsons episodes, “Lisa’s Substitute” and “Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington,” have already been released on video. But that still leaves this formidable slate of six episodes. Topping the ticket are “Sideshow Bob Roberts,” in which Bart’s “mortal enemy,” Sideshow Bob, becomes mayor of Springfield; “Trash of the Titans,” in which Homer, “the last angry man,” is electe… |
Tags: collectibles, shopping, sideshow star trek, sideshow star wars, sideshow star wars checklist, sideshow star wars figures, sideshow starcraft, star, starwars, toys, wars
This entry was posted on Sunday, August 30th, 2009 at 2:48 am and is filed under Toys and Hobbies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.