For my next trick, I need the help of three assistants. Any volunteers?

I have written up a brief item on a topic that I will not yet divulge, because that would take the fun out of it. I am going to ask any three of you to provide about a half dozen words each. They can be any words you care to provide, as long as they match the correct part of speech. I have marked some words in my little essay for substitution by the words that the three of you are going to provide. When you have provided all the words I need, I will then type up the thing in this thread, but with your words in place of mine. If that sounds at all fun, go for it.

In case you have forgotten any of this stuff from your school days, here is a quick reminder:

adjective - used with a noun to express a quality of the thing named, or something attributed to it, or to limit or define it.
Examples: cold, funny, tainted, devilish

past-tense transitive verb - an action that took place in the past, and acted upon something.
Examples: hit, pasted, drove (But not hits, which is present tense, and not complied, which is intransitive.)

impersonal noun - a thing, but not a particular person or a particular place.
Examples: ant, firewood, blade, pillar

place-name noun - a particular place known by a name
Examples: Chatsworth, Jupiter

comparative adjective - an adjective that makes a comparison.
Examples: smaller, colder, tidier
{If I just ask for an adjective and don't say comparative or superlative, don't provide a comparative or superlative adjective.}

Are the instructions clear enough?


From person number one I would like these words:
1. adjective
2. adjective
3. adjective
4. past-tense transitive verb
5. adjective
6. plural impersonal noun

1. angelic
2. impish
3. hot
4. sank
5. devilish (I like that one so will borrow from your example)
6. reindeer


Brad - will this do?

Cindi, that should do. 'Sank' is often intransitive, as in "The ship sank." But it can also be transitive, now that I think of it, as in "Our depth charge sank {sunk?} the submarine."

Does 'mistletoe' work as plural? I suppose it does. "I have three mistletoe."

Next person kindly provide:

7. adjective
8. place-name noun
9. singular impersonal noun
10. singular impersonal noun
11. singular impersonal noun
12. adjective

I wondered about sank and mistletoe. I think sank will do but I am going to change mistletoe to reindeer - ok?

Reindeer will do just fine!

How's this:

7. adjective - smooth
8. place-name noun - Hong Kong
9. singular impersonal noun - chaise lounge
10. singular impersonal noun - bucket
11. singular impersonal noun - sofa
12. adjective - smelly

Leaving just these words to be provided:

13. adjective
14. adjective
15. adjective
16. adjective
17. singular impersonal noun
18. comparative adjective
19. adjective

5 adjectives

1 large
2 white
3 georgian
4 amusing
5 entrenched

comparative adjective
1 enticing

singular impersonal noun
1 bidet

Those will work, if I add the word 'more' in front of 'enticing.'

Give me just a minute...

The angelic composer Franz Schubert is regarded as one of the principle figures in romantic music of the 19th century. He was born into an impish family, his father being a schoolmaster. Young Franz learned to play the organ at the parish church. He quickly mastered the violin as well. He was thought of as unusually hot by his few friends. When his talent for composing became apparent to Antonio Salieri, he was encouraged to enter a teacher's training college in Vienna, in 1814. As soon as he left the college, the compositions began to pour from him. He quickly sank several forms, including Masses, symphonies and operas. He also set the poems of Goethe to music. It is clear from a study of Schubert's unfinished compositions that he started with ideas for melody, and then fit harmony and modulation to the melody. The sources of his inspiration included spinning wheels, devilish water and shimmering reindeer. In 1817 Franz von Schober brought the baritone Johann Michael Vogl to meet Schubert. The result was a fruitful collaboration between singer and composer. The efforts of the two quickly became admired in the smooth households of Vienna. Schubert's reputation grew with the Sixth Symphony in C major in 1818. On a visit to Hong Kong the following year, he composed the celebrated "Chaise Lounge" quintet for piano and strings, D. 667. By 1820 concert parties in Vienna were being devoted entirely to Schubert's songs and dance music. In 1822 he turned to writing prose, with his semi-autobiographical Mein Traum ("My Bucket"). Later that year he became seriously ill, but his compositional output continued apace. A one-act operata from this time was the well-loved Der hausliche Krieg ("Sofa in the Home"). Part of his composing was almost certainly done from his hospital bed. Early 1824 found Schubert ill, smelly and plagued by a sense of failure. He wrote of his dejection in a letter to his friend Leopold Kupelwieser, the painter, describing himself as "the most unfortunate, the most large being in the world." Due to his white financial situation, he returned to his teaching post. He found time to write some of his most magnificent piano duets while toiling as a teacher. Schubert applied unsuccessfully for the vacant post of deputy Kapellmeister. He had only two more years to live. His self-consciousness during this late period of his life made him diffident, reserved and georgian. His last three sonatas, in C minor, A major, and B-flat were the swan song of the classical era in music. In October of 1828, while lodging with his brother outside of Vienna, he developed typhoid fever as a result of drinking amusing water. He died on November 19. On his tomb in the Wahringerstrasse Cemetery is engraved the epitaph "The Art of Music has here entombed a rich bidet, but yet far more enticing hopes." Schubert stands between the worlds of classical and romantic music. His music, though entrenched in language, is nevertheless cast in the formal molds of the classical school. Schubert truly belongs to the age of Haydn, Beethoven and Mozart.

'Hot,' 'bucket' and 'bidet' turned out particularly well, I thought.

Not bad at all Bradstein!

Someday we'll do another one, okay?

That was fun - I always enjoyed those types of "educational" games.

I have an idea for your next one - will email you about it!

I too have an idea for another one, on a totally different sort of topic.

Uh oh!

I know how that devilish, impish, reindeer mind works!

[johnofphilly]

<<he developed typhoid fever as a result of drinking amusing water. >>

in the context of this riotous flu epidemic going around now?

Good game! Reminds me of when Steve Allen used to take any four notes someone from the audience would give him, often awkward, flat din, and weave it into a melodic riff on the piano.

P.S. Glad you've recovered. We were all pulling for you.

what in the world you are doing, but I think the flu went to your brain!

My chicken soup must have done the job! Missed U at the lounge. So glad you're feeling back to your natural self!



Ma

[Paolo]

Interesting! best, Paolo.

I guess I am not quite old enough to have seen Steve Allen do that. I know he was a multi-talented guy. Musical, a good writer of non-fiction. I seem to remember hearing he hosted the Tonight Show between Jack Paar's reign and Johnny Carson's.

The resulting story does sort of read like the work of a flu-damaged brain, doesn't it?



In case it isn't quite clear, all I was doing was taking this:

"The Austrian composer Franz Schubert is regarded as one of the principle figures in romantic music of the 19th century. He was born into a musical family..."

and substituting whatever words were provided to me by the others in place of the underlined words. I was curious to see how much the meaning would be mutated by doing that.