Saturday, March 31, 2012

These are the best words I know, as evidenced by the fact that they popped into my head so quickly. (Off The Top Of My Head List.)


Off The Top Of My Head lists are what they sound like. Ordinarily, I stop when I run out of steam. But today's is a bit different, to kick off the A To Z Challenge that's starting tomorrow and which I've never read the rules for because rules are for suckers and wallabies. That's right, I went there.

Here, I'm going to list the first word I think of when I type each letter. No matter how long it takes to get through the alphabet. And I'm going to time it, because that seems to be my thing today. And I'm going to do it in reverse order, because that is awesome.

Z: Zither.
Y: Yellow
X: Xylophone, but that's what everyone says, right?
W: Water.
V: Victory.
U: Underwater
T: Thomas.
S: Snake.
R: Refrigerator.
Q: Quiet.
P: Possum.
O: Overture.
N: Nightingale. And I'm not even sure what one is! Maybe I'm thinking of Florence?
M: Mockingbird. But that's probably influenced by nightingale.
L: Leopard. Get off animals.
K: King.
J: Jumping jack! Double word score.
I: I
H: Happy.
G: Gardener. Yep. I didn't stop at garden.
F: Friend.
E: Exciting.
D: Dance.
C: Computer. Honestly, I thought of cat first but deemed it boring.
B: Benign.
A: Alphabet.

3:17. (Three minutes, seventeen seconds.)

It was made more difficult by the fact that Mr Bunches was, as I typed those, watching a video of jungle animals he likes and excitedly pointing the best ones out to me -- but they never coincided with the letters, so as I typed Q he was saying "Hippo, daddy! Hippo!"

Also, I know a nightingale is a bird. I'm just saying that if a nightingale were to walk into my house right now, I wouldn't know it was a nightingale. But I would offer it some toast, because I'm polite.

I suppose I should make this more pop culture-y, since that's kind of the point of this blog, so here's a similar list, in reverse order, of the top pop culture references I can come up with that begin with that letter. Again, timed.

Z: Zoolander.

Y:
Yemen -- from the episode of Friends where Chandler says he's moving to Yemen.

X:
X-Men. Which is weird, because I'm not even a fan of theirs.

W:
Walrus -- as in I am the...

V:
Venus -- as in I'm your ... I'm your fire...

U:
Undertaker. Wasn't he a wrestler? Why do I know that?

T:
Thomas -- weird. Thomas The Tank Engine is my go-to T word.

S:
Snake Plissken. Not sure of the spelling, never seen Escape From New York, don't know why I know this nor why it was first to pop up in there but remember that one Kurt Russell movie where he got superstrong eating a kind of cereal and entered a weightlifting contest? I liked that movie.

R:
Reptilian: Specifically, I'm thinking of those things from V back in the 1980s.

Q:
Oh, god. Think think think think Qwikster. That's all I've got, man. When push comes to shove, I'll throw Netflix under a bus as fast as the rest of you.

P:
Pushme-Pullyu. Isn't that a Doctor Doolittle thing? I feel like I'm learning something about myself here.

O:
Octopus. Doctor, not Garden-dwelling Ringo friend.

N:
Nightcrawler. Stupid X-Men. But I did like Nightcrawler in his own comic series.

M:
Mr. Roboto. Domo arigato to you!

L:
Oh, God, seriously what I thought of first is Larry The Cable Guy and kill me now.

K:
Knight. Which doesn't seem pop culture-y specifically but isn't Game Of Thrones knight-ish? Otherwise, consider it a reference to, I don't know, Excalibur. Or... wait! Jedi Knights. Redemption is sweet.

J:
Jedi Knight! I make the rules here.

I:
I came up first with igloo and don't know why. That led me to Ice Castles, which I blame Sweetie for because she loves that movie. I've never watched it.

H:
Halloween. Once I start thinking of movies Sweetie likes, I'm stuck in a loop.

G:
Ginifer Goodwin. She's a person, right? I'm wondering if maybe I didn't have a stroke.

F:
Friends.

E:
Everything at Once, a Lenka song that is used as a preview on about 1/2 of the boys' DVDs, so I grew to like it and then downloaded it.

D:
Donkey. From Shrek. Seriously, what is wrong with me?

C:
Caterpillar -- the one from Alice In Wonderland. Has there ever been a superhero based on the caterpillar? Shouldn't there be?

B:
Boy Meets World. You know who's hot? Topanga.Now, I mean. I'm not some kind of sicko.

A:
I am stumped. I've got nothing. Anderson Cooper? Sure, why not.

I think we all learned a little something about me today. I won't be showing my face in public for some time.

Just for a test, I ran the first two by Sweetie. She came up with:

Z: Zahara Pitt. And she's on Team Jennifer!

Y: Yvonne DiCarlo. If you know who she is, give yourself a gold star. (She's the wife on The Munsters. I'm married to a very special lady.)

5 comments:

PT Dilloway said...

Pop culture references for Q would be easy. You have two different "Q"s to choose from the one from Star Trek or the one from the James Bond movies.

Andrew Leon said...

"These are just a few of my favorite things..."
Bonus points if you know the movie that line from that song is from (throwing in the song part, so you know it's a line from a song).

I bet you could do a whole list just from the X-Men. Too bad you're not a fan.
Nightcrawler has always been one of my favorites. I mean, anyone that can sword fight with his tail, right?

However, I am disappointed with your pop culture "S." I mean, you're doing this whole Star Wars thing, and the best thing you could think of was Snake. (Yes, I'm ignoring the part where it's the first, not the best, because, seriously, Snake P? Did you get kicked in the head?)

And because you kept mentioning it, how are you, lately?

Briane said...

Here's what I came up with:

'Raptors on roses and whiskers on kittens.

I cant remember the song but I feel like I'm close.

As for my health, same as it ever was.

Andrew Leon said...

It's from The Sound of Music.

I don't know how to respond about your health...:( I mean, that's good, but I wish it was better, but I'm glad it's not worse.

Unknown said...

A good list.