melodrama and maple cookies

The origins of the word "bodacious" are sketchy.

Some say that it refers to Queen Boudicaea (also spelled Boudicca) who fought the Romans with her lesser known husband around 611 a.d.)  It would be a fitting tribute to a woman made of steel.  She led her people, the Iceni, and their allies in one of the better known revolts against the Romans who tried to claim East Anglia (in the southeastern region of England.)

The word is also said to be a Southern invention, some derivative of bold and audacious.  It was popularized a while back in the film "An Officer and a Gentleman" when David Keith directs Richard Gere to check out the "bodacious ta-tas" on Debra Winger and her friend.

Personally, I like to imagine that someone magnificent has been immortalized.

 

Today, while sitting at the circulation desk, a patron said "it's always something, right?  Do you remember Roseanne Rosanadana?"

Actually, I do.  Gilda Radner was something else.  I remember watching her one-woman Broadway show, "Gilda Live" (1980) on TV.  I actually think of that quite often. It was the first time I'd seen a one-woman comedy performance.  I particularly recall "The Judy Miller Show."  It's a young girl in a Brownie outfit fantasizing in her room.  She flees with an imaginary boyfriend... and does an advertisement for graham crackers....  She really made me laugh.  Her spoof of Nadia Comaneci (sp?) was culturally timely, too.

Whenever anyone mentions "if it's not one thing, it's another.  It's always something,"  I think about a cousin, Melanie, that I never met.  She died from kidney failure when I was young.  This was before Saturday Night Live appeared on television.  She was the oldest daughter of my Uncle Charlie and Aunt Ruth's brood of nine.  A year or two ago, Michelle Rose, their youngest, also died from kidney failure, even though she has received one of her brothers' kidneys. My cousins told me that Melanie used to say, "Promises, promises, that's all I get."  Maybe that seems sad to you, but my cousins laugh from their hearts when they remember her.

I made a side-trip to Uncle Charlie's in Pennsylvania several years ago on my way home from Allison's Lubavitcher wedding in Brooklyn.  The cousins brought their kids over because I was there.  The last time I counted the offspring of the offspring I lost count.  I do know that you have to step over them to get from room to room when you go to visit and they all come over.  And there were so many that I had to keep going from room to room to take them all in.

It makes up for me not breeding.  The family line is not going to die out anytime soon!

So why is this ramble called "melodrama and maple cookies?"  Well... I'm watching a movie called "Indigo."  It's about psychic children.  It's not improbable that I had a touch of that myself once.  I wonder if some of the people I feel close to now were "special" themselves....

And I bought some maple cookies today when I went to Dad's to get a ride home from the shop where I dropped off my car this evening.  Haven't opened them yet, but their rich, sugary goodness is calling me.

Earlier today, however, I made a date with some strawberry ice cream when I ran out of time for a snarf during lunch.  I got to IMing with my California girl and lost all track....  Luckily, I noticed just in time get back to work.

So that's my story tonight.  I leave you with a line from "Indigo": 

"Explanations kill mystery."