Tuesday, March 2, 2010

WORD GAMES, JAMES LIPTON, AND A CHALLENGE

     For those of you with children around you who enjoy word games,  James Lipton of "Inside the Actor's Studio" tells of his foray years ago to unearth the terms we use for groups of things -- a gaggle of geese, a pride of lions, the charm of finches. He discovered more in 15th century texts (adding a few of his own): a charm of finches, a parliament of owls, a cry of players, an outback of Aussies, the unkindness of ravens, a quicksand of credit cards, a rash of dermatologists, the superfluidity of nuns, an acre of dentists, the acne of adolescents, a  queue of actors. He added some of his own and filled over 300 pages in The Exaltation of Larks: The Ultimate Edition. What a challenge for those around you, to create their own...