It's been my experience, outside of the oft-used xylophone and x-ray, that most writers cheat on this letter. Our son Ty has an ABC book of Alaska and for the letter X it reads "X-tra Large State!" This author obviously has no integrity. There is no such word as X-tra. I would think that if you choose to take on such a task you should, at the very least, be diligent and do your research; or else select a more writer-friendly format.
Our school had a visiting author this past week. He writes ABC books for children (although he claims to really write for teachers). Over the past two decades he has written more than a dozen of these alphabet books. There's the Jet ABC Book, the Plane ABC Book, the Extinct ABC Book, the Vegetable ABC Book, and so on. During his visit the teachers had an opportunity to have lunch with him and ask all sorts of questions and learn more about what it's like to be a writer. He explained, with regard to writing ABC books, the first twenty letters are a piece of cake but the final six are excruciating. U, V, W, X, Y, and Z. No, these letters are not for the meek. Especially that damn X.
Here's the latest installment...
V- VENTURE CAPITAL. This one may not be fair given that I have no earthly idea what venture capitalism actually is. I looked it up only to find that the definition made no sense to me what-so-ever. If you have sixty seconds you don't mind wasting you too can give it a try:
Venture capital (VC) is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which and usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as biotechnology, IT, software, etc. The typical venture capital investment occurs after the seed funding round as growth funding round (also referred to as Series A round) in the interest of generating a return through an eventual realization event, such as an IPO or trade sale of the company. Venture capital is a subset of private equity. Therefore, all venture capital is private equity, but not all private equity is venture capital.
Others: vagueness, veils, valedictorian speeches, Vaseline, vampire books, vandalism, vans, varmint (the word), velvet, vengefulness, ventriloquists, and vermouth (it just sounds snotty)
W - WRESTLING (at least the "professional" sort). I enjoy stopping on wrestling programs just to see how long it takes Tricia to get mad at me. When I was a kid I really liked wrestling - especially Hulk Hogan. As he headed to ring they would play his theme song "I Am a Real American." Do you want to know what's more embarrassing than the fact that I know this? The fact that Newt Gingrich used this very song last week at one of his events. Yikes!
Others: waiting rooms, wallpaper, warts, whiskey, and wedding receptions
X - XANADU. A really, really, really, really bad movie. The equally lame tagline was The story of a girl who makes dreams come true. This movie was so bad the only bright spot movie critic Roger Ebert could find to highlight was that "It's not as bad as 'Can't Stop the Music'."
Others: xenophobia, Xena Warrior Princess, and X-tra large food portions
I was eXtra eXcited that you got to this one. Although think of all the alphabet books Jerry Polatta would write if X was common. We would be eXhausted reading all those things to kids. It might even be eXcruciating. If X were common it wouldn't have the mystique, the rare eXceptional status it maintains now.
ReplyDeleteIt's weird how the rare letters seem much more common at the end of the alphabet. I wonder how they were arranged that way in the first place. I mean it seems kind of random, doesn't it? What if it was reversed? Then all of the people with Z, Y and X woud be first in line. All of the Xaviers and Zeusses and Yolandas would be a lot happier I eXpect.
I don't disagree with any items on your list. Funny how those venture capitalists seemed to really screw things up for the economy, but get all the breaks. And, like you, I really don't know what they do for a living, what a typical day at the office looks like for them. Mitt Romney, right?
Consider viruses and veal and vandyke. I just learned from looking up vandyke (since I wasn't sure how to spell it - should it be capitalized? Surely not since it is the name of a beard, right?) that it is also an adjective. Yep, vandyked. Try adding that one to your speaking vocabulary.
Never saw Xanadu, but since it is on your worst list - it woud be fun to watch with you sometime. You know, over a couple of beers. We could do the Mystery Science Theater 3,000 thing.
Now we are here... in Xanaduuuuuuuuuuuu! Xanadu, your neon lights will shine, for youuuuuu in Xanaduuuuuuuu!
ReplyDeleteI LOVED that movie on HBO when I was like, 10, but saw it again a few years ago. Oh. My. I had no idea how tragic it was. And trust me on this, Chris and Tim, you guys would never get the full effect with a couple of beers. That movie calls for some seriously trippy stuff.
I have been so checked out that I have missed A-U. Absolutely Unacceptable. I'll look forward to catching up this weekend.
A pointer about X when playing the alphabet game in the car with small (and large) people: the word doesn't need to BEGIN with X - that would make the game land in the impossible zone rather than the enjoyable road-trip rivalry. X is the only letter that the internationally recognized (my family recognized them here AND in Canada, hence, international recognition) rules allow for placement mid-word. To respect the power of X, however, some words are excluded from being called: next, exit, Exxon, and Texaco. They are far too prevalent and would reduce the X-factor (if you will) to, say, the probability of finding C.
I digress. Lovely words. Lovely.