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Apr 19, 2010
This week's themeAllusions This week's words vanity fair Old Man of the Sea pygmalionism sisyphean achates 
Vanity Fair: An illustration from the book Pilgrim's Progress
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu GargWhen my daughter was little and scraped a knee, what brought the swiftest diversion wasn't candies or toys, but stories. Stories soothe us, teach us, take us to other worlds. Even when we grow up, our hunger for stories remains. Each of this week's five words is a story in itself. From mythology, fiction, and poetry, they contain tales that are hundreds or thousands of years old. Through the allusions and metaphors in them we'll visit lands afar. vanity fair
PRONUNCIATION:
(VAN-i-tee fair)
MEANING:
noun: A place characterized by frivolity and ostentation.
ETYMOLOGY:
After Vanity Fair, a fair that lasted all year long in the town of
Vanity, in the novel Pilgrim's Progress by writer and preacher John
Bunyan (1628-1688). In the fair were traded houses, honors, titles,
kingdoms, pleasures, and much more -- sounds like an early version
of eBay.
USAGE:
"[The Millionaire Fair] was a vanity fair of thin beautiful women sporting
mink fur coats and low necklines decorated with glittering jewelry and
dark-suited, elegant men shadowed by beefy bodyguards."Maria Danilova; In Moscow, A Nouveau Riche Showcase; The Associated Press; Nov 3, 2006.
"In one corner was Karl Rove, presidential adviser and global-warming denier.
In the opposite corner was the An Inconvenient Truth tag team of singer
Sheryl Crow and documentary producer Laurie David. Their encounter took
place Saturday night in Washington at the annual White House Correspondents
Dinner, a vanity fair for journalists, politicos, and celebrities." A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
One is happy as a result of one's own efforts once one knows the necessary ingredients of happiness: simple tastes, a certain degree of courage, self denial to a point, love of work, and above all, a clear conscience. -George Sand [pen name of Amantine-Aurore-Lucile Dupin], novelist (1804-1876)
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