Saturday, June 20, 2009

Now They Laughed at His Fantasy World

Wow, it is already Saturday again and time to show what we have managed to scavenge and hunt. This week's word is QUIXOTIC and comes to us from the mind of NoRegrets. Clearly, she is someone who wants to see us pull out our dictionaries, put on our thinking caps, and get creative! What was I able to dig up for our Saturday Scavenger Hunt?

Of course, as I work in la biblioteca I had to go right to the source of the word! Here is a copy of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. The behavior of this seminal character in literature gave us the word QUIXOTIC to describe impractical, wild-eyed romanticism.


Don Quixote fought windmills in the fanciful belief that they were ferocious monsters. If I were QUIXOTIC, here is a nearby windmill that I could battle. As you can probably see, it is, yes, a Denny's. But let us not focus on that. Instead, let us channel our QUIXOTIC emotions into tilting at windmills and going mad with our chivalry.

Meh. I don't know. I may be more of a Sancho Panza type :-) But it was fun to spend a bit of time being QUIXOTIC with all of you. I can't wait to see everyone getting all QUIXOTIC up in here. Could it possibly be anything less than fascinating? I think not. Also...can't wait to see who NoRegrets tags for next week. The fun never ends! It doesn't!

16 comments:

dmarks said...

cool windmill, and interesting word.

Click here for my take on it.

Pamela said...

why on earth does Denny's have a windmill??

Ananda girl said...

Well done! I don't know why I never thought of the book. My gosh I have at least two copies in my house. Sheesh.

Never thought of windmills either. I was not as on the ball as you.

Very enjoyable game this week... well, always.

crazy4coens said...

Wow - this word sure brought out a lot of windmills.

I bet they are everywhere and I just never noticed them. I'm going to keep an eye out this week. (Of course it will be a week late and a quarter short.)

Thanks for sharing the Denny's one. And why does Denny's have a windmill? To churn the butter?

laura b. said...

Dmarks: Your post was awesome! This turned out to be a real fun one.

Pamela: I guess it used to be a Van De Kamps Bakery. Certainly makes it one of the more memorable Denny's.

Ananda: I think it a lot of the fun of this game is seeing where people's minds go...The fact that you didn't go to maybe something more obvious seems like a good thing to me :-)

Crazy4Coens: Oh, I hope you'll play! You can always jump in...early or late, no problem :-) Nowadays Denny's probably uses the windmill to as some sort of torture device for their surly waitstaff. I could be wrong though...

Mrs. Hairy Woman said...

Like the windmill at Denny's.. Never knew that they had that.. Good take on the word..

BTW I'm back to blogging..new post!

Bobby said...

That's a Denny's? In what era was that their design? Or is that a special one? Or is the windmill not actually a part of the structure in the foreground, but behind it? I'm optical illusioned.

laura b. said...

Mrs: I think this is a sort of singular location. All the Denny's around here have their own little style going on, but this one is unique.
Back to blogging! Glad to hear it :-)

Bobby: Before it was a Denny's it was Van De Kamp Bakery, probably built in the 1930s or so. This is not an illusion :-)

crazy4coens said...

well, van de kamp explains it all!

(haven't seen any windmills yet)

i will play next saturday. thanks for the encouragement! function (yikes)

Churlita said...

Great Quixotic photos. When I was in college, I tried to read Don Quixote in Spanish, but didn't get too far. The old Spain Spanish is so different than the Southwest United States Spanglish I speak.

Tara said...

I decided to bow out of the Saturday Scavenger Shots this week. Not because I was stumped on the word, but because I'm stumped altogether about stuff to post. I do love seeing my fellow blogger friends fire up their creativity like you all do so well!

I love that windmill!

Jessie... thats what they call me said...

lol
GREAT JOB!!!

Sebastien Millon said...

I have fought many windmills. They are a worthy foe, to say the least. I want to read Don Quijote in espanol, will be quite a challenge, I hope I can get around to it at some point.

Quick question: do you have a favorite Faulkner novel? or like his work? I'm exploring his stuff, read a couple of his books in highschool, and I'm just curious if you have a particular story you enjoy of his?

Just read As I Lay Dying, actually quite sad! I will probably reread Sound and the Fury, remember really liking that one...

laura b. said...

Crazy4Coens: Makes marginally more sense at least, right? :-) Glad you are into playing along. But yeah, function may be another toughie.

Churlita: I think Don Quixote is daunting enough in Ingles! I keep looking at it though...I just might go for it.

Tara: We all get these dry spells...and this is a weird time, I know. I hope to see you inspired soon, because selfishly, I always really look forward to reading your blog.

Jessie: Aw, thanks! :-)

Sebastien: I should have known you'd be that tilting at windmills type!
I always think that if I could only read one thing of Faulkner's I would choose Absalom! Absalom! It is gothic and very non-linear in structure. Quite complex and haunting, I think.

Sebastien Millon said...

Awesome, I have that one in audiobook form, so I will go for it in the near future.

laura b. said...

Sebastien: That's great...let me know how you like it, okay?