Sean Connery

The only actor so far to show there is life after 007. One of the truly great sons of Scotland.

The name's Connery. Sean Connery. I was the first Bond. Whenever anyone wants to do a Bond voice, they impersonate me. Since then I've voiced Draco in Dragonheart and played Marko Ramius in Red October. I was in The Untouchables, Zardoz, Outland, and indeed countlessblockbusters, many of them quite good. I've also been an influential voice in the Scottish secession movement. Beat that, Roger!

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Tarot cards

Intriguing form of folk art consisting typically of a deck of cards with 22 major trumps and four suits of minor trumps with fourteen cards each, although there are variations on this basic plan. Typically or ideally each card has an illustration of some kind. The variety of decks is considerable, although some are considerably more original in their inspiration (and/or better in their artistry) than others. Poetically resonant and often of use in artistic inspiration. Thought to have originated at least as far back as the late Middle Ages. Sadly done to death by New Agers who insist they are useful for divination, and Christian fundamentalists who put them close to the top of a veeerrry looonnngg list of stuff that will lead you straight to Hell, but still quite interesting.

Wanna see my collection of Tarot cards? I've got about thirty decks.

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third arm

Somebody who considers themself so tied to someone else that they are only there to do the other's bidding. A slave. By analogy with an actual third arm, with which the owner of the arm could hope to do so much more, but which has no independent life of its own.

Mary is trying to treat Jimmy like her third arm again. She won't even let him go out for a night with the lads.

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play the banjo with

To play the banjo with someone; to try to make friends with someone who isn't going to be friends or who keeps dodgy company, typically rough, bigoted or violent. From the banjo duet in John Boorman's "Deliverance".

Although they had been making funny noises at me across the square, I just had to play the banjo with those guys. I regretted it within the week.

whup the bunny

To whup the bunny is to really, truly, monumentally screw up. To screw the pooch.

I had everything worked out just fine for the party, and then Marjorie just had to come along and whup the bunny for everyone.

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New Killer Weapons

Some new-fangled type of arms that "President" George Bush II tends to worry about a lot, or so he says.

Mah fellow Americans, there is plenny of evidence that Ee-rak, Afghanistan and perhaps Venezuela all have New Killer Weapons.

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Silver Shamrock

Fictitious mask company in the third instalment in the Hallowe'en franchise, "Season of the Witch" (the one without Mr. Myers). The masks are the colours of the Irish national flag (orange Jack-O-Lantern, white skull, green witch), and are made by a company in a weird all-Oirish town on the coast of California. On activation by a signal on the big night, the masks transform their (numerous) wearers' heads into so many divers creepy-crawlies. The Silver Shamrock company wins the booby prize for the most irritating television jingle ever inflicted on the world in fact or fiction; a countdown to the tune of "London Bridge is Falling Down", starting "(x) days to Hallowe'en, Hallowe'en, Hallowe'en". I had it in my head for WEEKS. The head of the company is played by an actor from Wexford, Ireland, and incidentally as far as I can tell is the only figure in the history of American horror films to pronounce Samhain correctly.

Four days left to Hallowe'en,
Hallowe'en, Hallowe'en,
Four more days to Hallowe'en,
Silver Shamrock!

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