the cult of the universal lightness of being

You know there's a few words that fascinate me and one of them is 'hullabaloo'. Surely that is one of the strangest words in the English language? Its like the outcast who no one talks to, but its got personality I think. Another one is 'bamboozle' which I always picture as a dorkish bumbling dimwit, but a lovable one. Yann Martel in his introduction to his incredible book 'The life of pi' says you cant go wrong if you use the word 'bamboozle' in India where apparently it is very popular. I think they have good taste.
(folk tales from around the world, Dave Barry, rain, William Joyce and the all-singing, all dancing frogs, 'money for nothing', Sake...)
England and Austria tomorrow- come on Crouchie, give us a goal! Thank God Sven has finally got some balls and dropped Rio- at least if the papers are right about it anyway. No one should be in the squad on the strength of reputation alone. With Campbell and Terry in the center of defence (Carra and Young on the wings) and the usual suspects in midfield (Gerrard, lampard, Beckham and Cole) England should have little trouble giving Austria a good old fashioned ass-kicking.
Me and Rama resume our great scrabble rivalry tonight. its not going to be pretty. These scrabble games are always an opportunity for us to play another game I call stretch-the-metaphor. For example, one of us could dramatically throw something invisible to the ground and then say 'There! I've thrown down the gauntlet' or if someone is playing particularily well, he might rest on something invisible and then say offhand 'oh- just resting on my laurels- dont mind me' Its very silly, but thats how we do.