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Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Q is for ...

My theme for this year's A- Z Blogfest is DEATH (who I hope is like DEATH in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series): "...tall, thin (skeletal, as a matter of fact), and ALWAYS SPEAKS IN CAPITAL LETTERS. Generally shows up when you're dead, or just when he thinks you ought to be." Today we have Q for absolutely nothing. I couldn't find a single damn Q word that had anything to do with death.

Can you think of one?


Excerpt from Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett in which DEATH finds FAMINE in a restaurant in Genua eating Duck and Dirty Rice and tells him they need to ride out because it's the end of the world...

Famine listened, although he never stopped eating.

"I see," he said at last. "Thank you, but I think I shall sit this one out."

SIT IT OUT? YOU'RE A HORSEMAN!

"Yes, of course. But what is my role here?"

I BEG YOUR PARDON?

"No famine appears to be involved, does it? A sortage of food per se? As such?"

WELL, NO. NOT AS SUCH, OBVIOUSLY, BUT-

"So I would, as it were, be turning up just to wave. No, thank you."

YOU USED TO RIDE OUT EVERY TIME, said Death accusingly.

Famine waved a bone airily. "We had proper apocalypses in those days."

12 comments:

  1. Q words relating to death....quackle to choke; to suffocate,quietus - discharge from life; extinction; death; silencing were two I could think of from teaching high school vocabulary and Shakespeare. Hoep they help. Stopping in from A-Z.

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  2. Yes, some letters just don't work for a theme.

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  3. I thought of quarantine, but that hopefully prevents death! ~grin~ Still Magnolia offered some cool ones.
    Awakening Dreams and Conquering Nightmares with a Pen
    Have a lovely day!

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  4. I thought of "quietus", meaning 'discharge from life; extinction; death; silencing' but I see someone already beat me to it. :)

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  5. A simple four letter word: QUIT - quit breathing, hence death?

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  6. What about quip? Does Death speak in pithy sentences?

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  7. or query - why? Death, why?

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  8. yes, Quit with life :) And what MJ Field said is also a good one

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  9. Q, X and Z are often tough letters. I went with Quarantine.

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  10. Yeah, I have no idea, either.

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  11. I like the back and forth dialogue between Famine and Death. However, I don't think I've ever seen a type of death that started with Q.. . it would have to be an interplanetary virus like Q13. . .

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  12. I've got nothing. Nothing, I say, nothing.

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