O

O Is For...


Orgasm. Obviously. From chocolate or beer, or Obviously, great sex. Or onanism.

Oranges. Take off the peels, then squish or twist into a candle flame. The volatile oils flame beautifully. A great word without rhyme in English. Are there rhymes for orange in other languages, I wonder.

Otters. Sinuous and playful, my favorite wild critter. Smart, too, I understand.

Oscar. Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliet, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu. See? O is for Oscar.

Ostriches, who really don't hide their heads in the sand, but old time naturalists often did.

Opus, in his time the best comic character, who gave me the expression "Anxious pimple" - a worry wart.

Orlando. A movie I had to see a second time, years later, to finally decide if I liked it. I do. I don't often recommend it, though.

Offensive. Much of my edited humor. Mostly joking about death, or subjects considered sacred.

Orthopedic Oncology. My new favorite surgical specialty. Amazing what they can do, huge surgeries wherein I must run my ass off. Patients who are remarkably resilient, and so far, very funny. From one - "Measure once, cut twice. Damn! It's still too short!"

Onomatopoeia. A word that should be a sound, and does nicely as a description of train rattle, or finger drumming.

Oxymoron. Nurse/writer. The vast majority of the nurses I know can't spell for toffee, barely make it though charting or incidence reports, and have very shoddy taste in books. I'd still let the vast majority take care of me if I were ill or injured. There may be writers who could fluff a pillow or give a pill. Not as pointed an oxymoron as Military Intelligence.

Oast. 'A kiln; (in later use) spec. one used to dry hops or malt; a building housing this. ' One of those words used in crossword puzzles that I never remember, because it's not really in my vocabulary, but perhaps should be. (Thank you OED.)

OK. The universal word. Really, try it sometime.

Thanks to Pilgrim/heretic for the O.