bated breath

Larkin's due to have her baby today! The family's all waiting with bated breath. After typing that sentence, I was so curious about where the phrase bated breath came from that I felt compelled to look it up online. World Wide Words calls the phrase a "linguistic fossil", saying that Shakespeare used it in The Merchant of Venice ("With bated breath and whisp'ring humbleness") as did Mark Twain in Tom Sawyer ("Every eye fixed itself upon him; with parted lips and bated breath the audience hung upon his words..."). Bated is an abbreviation of the word abated, so the phrase actually means that you're so terrified or anxious that you almost stop breathing. Speaking of bated breath, Jeff and I have our Lord of the Rings tickets! I opted for the first show on Wed. Dec. 18th rather than the midnight show the night before. There's no way that I'm going to properly enjoy a movie that ends around 3 a.m., no matter how wonderful a movie it is. If it was a movie that began at 5 a.m. instead of midnight, however, I'd be all over it. :-) I forced Jeff to see Solaris with me last night at the Paramount. Just before the trailers started, a woman dressed up as a Famous Players Gift Certificate came out and gave a spiel about how FP gift certificates make great Christmas gifts. I admired her spunk and enthusiasm in what looks to me like a terrible job, so I took her photo (see above). When the flash went off, everyone looked around the theatre (including her) to see who the weirdo was that wanted a photograph of a human Famous Players Gift Certificate. At the end of her spiel, she told us the person who could yell "I LOVE FAMOUS PLAYERS GIFT CERTIFICATES" the loudest would win a free gift certificate for one admission themselves. Guess what? I WON! :-D Jeff was highly amused (and embarrassed, I'm sure): Over half a dozen people walked out of Solaris during the movie. It's definitely not a movie for everyone. I spent the first third of the movie on the verge of hating it; much of it reminded me a lot of the ending of the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. But I ended up liking it more than Jeff did, mainly because of the character interactions and emotional questions (won't go into details for fear of spoilers), and was intrigued enough to buy a copy of Stanislaw Lem's novel at Chapters next door after the movie. Links/News: Jim Leonard has his OVFF photos online. One year ago, Tom West turned 40. Today's Blatherpics: From Waiting For Frodo as well as the Paramount theatre last night.