Brought to You by the Letter H

As I continue my quest through the alphabet, I come to the letter H. H is fairly simple in English. Most words that begin with this letter have the breathy “hah” opening: him, her, horse, hot, etc.

Here’s a song that got stuck in my head with this letter: “Hold Your Head Up” by Argent.

However, there are a few H words that don’t have that breathy start. The two that I can think of are honor (and its family: honorable, honored, honorific, etc) and hour. These words have a silent H, making the first linguistic sound with the O - honor being “ah-nor” and hour being “ow-er”.

Of course, I refer to Mulan’s song “Honor to Us All” to show how the word honor works.

Mind you that dialects can change the rules of linguistics. If you were raised to have silent H’s, it might sound something like this, from “My Fair Lady” - "Just You Wait Henry Higgins":

Also, linguistic rules regarding sounds are not universal across all languages. In Spanish, eggs are huevos (pronounced “way-vohz”), and oven is horno (pronounced “or-no”). For English, however, the two sounds for H starting a word are the breathy “hah” and the silent H.

On to one more thing, I have an issue with a song entitled “Henry the 8th” by Herman’s Hermits.

Firstly, I can understand why a sexually active woman would want the same named guy - she could call out a previous lover’s name without viewed as cheating because it would be the same name.

Secondly, how come she’s had seven husbands? Is she a black widow, upgrading every so often to a younger model? Or has she been a victim of multiple instances of bad karma, killing her husband? Either way, would it really be wise to marry someone that has had that many passed-away spouses? Would you be killed in the next year, whether by accident or by a plan? Either way, I think that this would be a no-sale point for me just in case something sinister is in the works. I wouldn't want to be a part of the "upgrade to a better model" plan. Spouses aren't meant to be like that.

Anyways, on to the letter I, for which I will be posting another blog post soon. Keep tuned!


~Gracie Mae DeLunac
Email graciemaedelunac@yahoo.com
Twitter @Gracie_DeLunac

Brought to You by the Letter G

While some letters make their words easy to find, like the letter D with all of its delightful and disturbing words, there are letters that change their sounds depending on the arrangement of letters with them in the word. C is one of those letters (with a kah sound start like candy, a cha sound like challenge and a sh sound like chateau). G is another changing letter.

The majority of G words use the hard G sound like gross, groovy, and gift. “Good golly Miss Molly, Gary got a gun!”

The next largest group of G words use the soft G sound which seems more like J: giraffe, general, generic, etc. “In Georgia, the General Gerald and his wife Georgina own a giant giraffe named Giselle.”

The smallest G word group is the N sound, making the G silent: gnash, gnat, gnaw. “The gnawing gnat makes me gnash my teeth.”

Brought to You by the Letter D

“So I was naming off words and names that start with the letter D. To use the letter, the list looks rather dismal.”

The writer’s friend asks, “How so?”

She grimly smiles, “Well, the letter D starts a lot of undo words with de-, like decommissioning, deconstruct. Of course you still have destroy, detonate, destruct, and demolish, but those aren’t compounded like deconstruct which is the undo of a construction. And then there are the dis- words like dislike, disengage, disembowel, and disembodied.”

“Wow... Never thought of it like that.”

“There’s more. Divorce, drab, death, dead, dying, disaster, dim, dumb, dunce, diminish, division, dull, dreary, dung, drugs...”

“There’s got to be some good words with the letter D. Like dog.”

The writer shakes her head, “Diminutive dogs, also known as puppies or tea-cup dogs sure but I don’t like most dogs. Too loud.”

“What words for food with D?”

“I thought of donuts and dates....”

The writer’s friend chuckles, “Seriously, that’s it?”

She nods.

“What about donuts? Or dragons? Or diamonds? Or DVDs?”

The writer blanches, “Not to eat! The dragons will be mad if you try to eat them!!”

“But there are some redeeming words for the letter D.”

“Yeah... But not by much. Dragons really help it!”

Brought to You by the Letter C

One cloudy day, the crow called across the channel to the canary, convincing her to come closer, “I have a something to tell you.”

“Continue.”

“The chameleon must change into a cornet. A chihuahua in the city of Chicago Creek has a craving for clam chowder. A chestnut-colored cat consumes candy-coated cake and chocolate chip cookies. The challenge of searching for the crimson clover will carry catastrophic crickets upon the cabbages and chives and cacophonous cicadas upon the carnations and the corn. The Captain stands in his cabin crying chaos.”

The canary chortles, “Cousin, you are crazy. The courtesan’s copper coins and cash has been counted. All currency is correct.”

The crow concedes and continues on his way.

Movie Review: "The Addams Family Values" 11/19/93

This is a movie review for "The Addams Family Values", released November 19, 1993. Again, I have seen parts of this movie but never sat down to watch the whole thing until Halloween 2017.



Trailer

Cast

Anjelica Huston - Morticia Addams

Raul Julia                - Gomez Addams

Christopher Lloyd - Uncle Fester Addams

Joan Cusack            - Debbie Jellinsky

Judith Malina          - Granny

Carel Struycken - Lurch

Christina Ricci - Wednesday Addams

Jimmy Workman - Pugsley Addams

Plot
Gomez and Morticia have a new baby (Pubert) and they decide that they need to get a babysitter. Of course, the babysitter is a blond black-widow named Debbie that has her claws set on Fester. Can the family survive Debbie, especially when she gets Wednesday and Pugsley sent to summer camp?





Rating Criteria

0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute waste of time.
1/5 – Barely worth any time.
2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of something to hold the attention a little.
3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but could definitely have used more.
4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.
5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all around. – characters, music, theme, story line, etc.


3/5 - The idea that the kids want to kill their baby brother really bugs me. And of course, the blond bimbo gold-digger splitting the family is effed up. When Gomez breaks down mentally because the child is a blond?! I get it but still... I am glad that she ended how she did but this is still not the Addams Family that I loved from the television show. The show was dark and funny, not so serious.




SPOILERS! Here's the end:

Word count: 161 words. 2018: 842.

Movie Review: "The Addams Family" 11/22/91

This is a movie review for "The Addams Family", released November 22, 1991. I have seen parts of this movie but when it was on for Halloween 2017, I decided to watch the full movie.

Trailer

Cast

Anjelica Huston - Morticia Addams

Raul Julia         - Gomez Addams

Christopher Lloyd - Uncle Fester Addams / Gordon Craven

Dan Hedaya         - Tully Alford

Elizabeth Wilson - Abigail Craven / Dr. Greta Pinder-Schloss

Judith Malina         - Granny

Carel Struycken - Lurch

Christina Ricci - Wednesday Addams

Jimmy Workman - Pugsley Addams

Plot

The family Addams live in an old museum-like mansion. Their family consists of Gomez and Morticia, their children Wednesday and Pugsley, a matriarch named Granny, their gigantic butler Lurch, and their friend Thing (a hand). Everything about them is weird.

Best way to introduce the family is through the old television show intro:

In this movie, their family has been missing an important member: Uncle Fester. A woman brings her son to the house to play as Fester so that they can get the family's money, but could he really be Fester after all?

Rating Criteria

0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute waste of time.

1/5 – Barely worth any time.

2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of something to hold the attention a little.

3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but could definitely have used more.

4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.

5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all around. – characters, music, theme, story line, etc.

3.5/5 - As a fan of the television show, I find this movie good and at the same time lacking. I don't know how Fester was lost (and I'm also behind on watching all of the episodes) but this movie was slightly disturbing considering how Abigail Craven was so greedy to get someone else's money. I know, that's life, but still it seems off. I don't recall what else knocked down points for this movie... I loved Cousin It's appearance. Very awesome.

In general, it isn't a bad movie. It isn't something that I would go out to see, though, but isn't a "STAY AWAY" for sure. I think one of the things that I was disappointed in was the fact that Anjelica Huston wasn't quite what I remember Morticia as. *shrugs* Well, again, that's life.

If you liked the show, have fun watching this! (Just don't expect perfection through the transition from the 1960's to 1991.)

Word Count: + 287 words. 2018: 681.

Movie Review: "IT" 09/08/17

This is a movie review for "IT", released September 08, 2017. This is a one of a set, probably two movies like the television series had.




Trailer

Cast
Jaeden Lieberher        - Bill Denbrough
Jeremy Ray Taylor        - Ben Hanscom
Sophia Lillis                - Beverly Marsh
Finn Wolfhard                - Richie Tozier
Chosen Jacobs        - Mike Hanlon
Jack Dylan Grazer        - Eddie Kaspbrak
Wyatt Oleff        - Stanley Uris
Bill Skarsgård                - Pennywise





Plot
In the town of Derry, Maine, there is a problem with people going missing. The children are the worst, disappearing more and more often. A group of kids (naming themselves "The Losers Club") ban together to figure out why the kids are disappearing. They find out that it is a clown named Pennywise, living in the sewers, that is attacking and taking the children. Are they alive? That is yet to be determined. Can they survive and defeat the clown?

Rating Criteria

0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute waste of time.

1/5 – Barely worth any time.

2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of something to hold the attention a little.

3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but could definitely have used more.

4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.

5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all around. – characters, music, theme, story line, etc.


3/5 - As a stand alone movie, this movie needed help. The characters were not developed through the movie. The friendship between the friends was not improved; it seemed more like a neutral alliance "to survive". The fear of the kids, which was what Pennywise was supposed to feed off of, was lame and laughable (especially for the zombies.... wtf?!).


As an adaption of the Stephen King's tv series, this is PATHETIC. If you enjoyed the tv series, do not expect anything high of this movie. The fears are lame/laughable, like I said, and the friendships are pathetic. The creature Pennywise was not as terrifying as the tv series. The fears were scary but just not as scary, IN MY OPINION, as those from the 1990 version. From a horror film opinion, the clown coming out after you from the dark, contorting in inhuman ways, zooming at you in speeds that humans don't normally move, etc., was just not as thrilling as a psychological thriller. The clown in the 1990 series appeared more "normal" but could change deadly easily whereas the clown in the 2017 version was scary looking already, with the red lines coming up from the edge of the mouth. I think that the psychological scare is better than the physical (like seeing zombies that are laughable examples of zombies?), so I prefer the 1990 version.



Leper "zombie" scene from 2017:

Here's a short comparison. Judge for yourself. I still say that psychological thrillers/horrors are better than jump-out-to-scare-you thrillers/horrors, but that's my opinion. ;-)

Also, I have decided to count my movie reviews and book reviews as "words written" for this year, so kudos to me for writing up a review! New word count for the year, which is just this review so far: 394 words! #1WordAtATime