Date:         Fri, 30 Aug 1996 22:17:53 EDT
From: herr tink <mbarker@MIT.EDU>
Subject:      EXERCISE:  A Southern Cross?

[another Friday, here in Beantown, with networks on every side,
but not a bit to waste...]

Let's start with a flower.  Pick a number from one to six, if you
please?

    1.  dandelion
    2.  snapdragon
    3.  hyacinth
    4.  peony
    5.  fuchsia
    6.  thistle

Got your flower firmly in hand?  At least lingering in your mental
gaze, scenting the keys with its subtle perfume, crying softly for
gentle rain or even *shudder* tap water?  What color was it,
again?  And is it damp with dew or dry, so dry, even drier than
the desert sand and sun that turned it into dust?

Ready?  Try another one to six.

    1.  blithe
    2.  joyful
    3.  sparkling
    4.  merry
    5.  laughing
    6.  beatified

An emotion?  A feeling, with stirrings from your toes, from your
hips, from the pit of your stomach, even from underarms dripping
sweat?  Are the eyes of your emotion brimming?  Shut?  What about
that old mouth and tongue?  Are the hands clapping, wrapping
around quaking shoulders, or quietly folded in ecstasy?

and the last one of our trio for today (one to six, of course!) is
taken from the australian FAQ, part 5 of 6, where they provide an
introductory Strine Glossary from A to Zed:

    1.  barrack - verb
    2.  Bullamanka - place name
    3.  dag - noun?
    4.  dunny - noun
    5.  fossick - verb
    6.  sandgroper - noun

though the meanings are likely a bit shonky at best, even a
stickybeak would have to laugh at the fitness of "rainbow sneeze."
Don't chuck a wobbly, don't winge at yobbos, just figure it's a
Yankee shout and pay your tariff...

knackers?  Who's going to squeeze them, eh?  And I suppose you're
going to show us your map of tazzy and try to tell us that's a
fair crack of the whip when it's really crook?

[sorry, got carried away there.  Back to the gibby.]

Now, one vegetable burgeoning, one emotional upwelling, and a word
of Strine in hand, think!  What could these odds and ends have to
do with each other?  Suppose your character is eating the flower,
feeling the excitement in one or more of their cavities (abdominal
or plain ordinary dominal?), and listening to the screeching of a
traveler from down under (no, not the plumber!).

One sentence to start, one sentence to bind them, one sentence to
keep them in the dark?

        "Did you ever really look at one of these?" he said, and
dragged the back of his hand across the tears on his cheeks.

[for those who may be joining us for the first time - HI! - oh,
and if you want to, feel free to write something, using the
provided sentence as a starting point or not, using whatever helps
you from this exercise - or ignoring it completely if you like!]

write soon?
tink
(mbarker@mit.edu)

[WARNING!  SPOILERS FOLLOW!  If you just can't wait to find out
what these funny words from oz mean, I've included the definitions
below.  But if you really want to have fun, write your story
(poem, vignette and oil, whatever) before you read the definitions
- after all, we need to decide who is going to be boss, and then
tell those words to do what we want them to!]

The way they see it:

1.  barrack - verb - to cheer on a team at a sporting event
2.  Bullamanka - place name - imaginary place even beyond back of
    Bourke, way beyond the black stump
3.  dag - noun? - dirty lump of wool at the back end of a sheep,
    also an affectionate or mildly abusive term for a socially
    inept person
4.  dunny - noun - outdoor lavatory
5.  fossick - verb - to hunt for gemstones
6.  sandgroper - noun - resident of western oz