words in action

As many of you know I am a fan of big words, so you can imagine my delight when I discovered that Prague is the city from which the word defenestration was created. This word has always been one of my favorites because it single-handedly expresses a dramatic action,as it literally means 'to throw out of the window.' Its so great, it allows for smooth articulation of a threat, like "Hey buddy, you better watch yourself or I'll defenestrate you" or can expediently express an emergency situation "Oh No! She has been defenestrated!" Apparently the Czech people have had many incidences within their political history where they felt it was necessary to express their opinions or disagreement by housting those in disaccord out the window. (For another fun random fact, window is one of the few words I know in Czech, it is 'okno'). I believe once the initial defenestration occurred, the results were so satisfactory that whenever an appropriate occasion presents itself, Czechs cannot help but follow the same course of action. These people are brilliant, I think they invented the rubix cube as well, and contacts lenses.

We have had several defenestrations of our own since we have occupied our new flat a couple of stories up from our first flat. I believe I have already mentioned the defenestration of our poor sunflower. And last night Becca and Lauren had another defenestraion, this time the victim a helpless but hefty watermelon rind that had been eaten that afternoon. I do not know all the details since I was in bed when this occurred (though I did hear the whisper 'shh, quickly, before the logical one wakes up') but Lauren heralded the watermelons fall with a loud shout 'Ahoj down there!' and gleefull laughing and screaming as the rind plummeted all four stories. I can only imagine that the Czech's defenestrations were as successful.