Open Spigot

I prefer to read classics over the latest bestsellers, so I don’t rush to Amazon or my local bookseller for many just-released books. Even if a new book captures my attention, I take my sweet time to acquire it and read it through. This latest and last Harry Potter book has been different. And not by choice.

I have loved the series ever since I first laid eyes on it in 1999. It reminded me of Tolkien’s fantasy world with a lighter voice and more female participation. I read every subsequent book as it came out — but when it was convenient for me. When the book fit in my schedule, I collected it from a book purveyor and gobbled it up.

As those of you who have read Harry Potter know very well, the books are a non-stop reading experience. All non-critical-to-your-survival activities fall away as you blow through 500-700 pages of Potter.

Now, as you may also know, I am now a mother. My daughter is 10 months old. I have many, many todo items in my day that keep our lives whirring on as smoothly as possible. Vocab Vitamins takes all the childcare hours I am lucky to have. I DON’T HAVE TIME FOR HARRY POTTER.

But reading it I am. Why? Why now, when I could have read it just as well say, 6 or 12 months from now? Because of all the hype. The series has gotten so enormously popular, that even if I did my best to avoid all book reviews (I have), all coverage (I have), someone somewhere would leak the storyline and spoil it for me before I read the book.

And that would be terrible.

So thanks to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, I am now sporting a darker shade of under-eye circles than usual. And naturally, this week’s words are culled from the first part of it. But no spoilers here, I promise.

While most monarchies are now defunct, the royal obsession rages on. The primary driver for this intrigue is the unfathomable lifestyle that royalty enjoyed. Palatial living included constant entertainment, service hand and foot, and inconceivable home decor.

This week’s theme enumerates some of the hallmarks of the regal lifestyle: seal used in royal paperwork (signet), the concentric rings of the royal court and larger aristocracy (noblesse), a crown (diadem), serpentine emblem of sovereignty (uraeus), and finally a shield depicting a coat of arms (escutcheon).

While this week’s theme is a nod to royal mania, we here at Vocab Vitamins would like to point out, that the average American today enjoys a lifestyle that no member of the royal family of the 18th century could even fathom. In fact, we live better than royalty of old. Here are just a couple examples:

Transportation
Royalty: by horse, ship (excruciatingly slow and while at sea, at nature’s mercy)
You: car, plane (could be around the world in half a days journey)

Personal Communication
Royalty: letters, messengers (slow, all those stories of intercepted communications)
You: cellphones, digital communication (email sent and received in seconds, video chat and cellphones are really just a touch shy of telepathy)

Entertainment
Royalty: live music, theater, opera, balls, books (had the best performers at their court)
You: all of the above are open to us, but certainly expensive (we still win with ipods, flat screen tvs and movies)

Health
Royalty: many suffered from a host of genetic conditions which resulted from inbreeding, their wealth did not prevent them from losing children to illness
You: strong genetic mutt, loss of life due to infectious disease at a young age is rare, can benefit from incredible feats of healing through modern surgery and medicine

Royalty does win in the bling category, but that went out with the 90s. Counting our blessings, life in 2007 is fit for a king!

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