Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Agog about award noms

 I missed a week of Slang-o-rama, and I blame it on being agog re: nominations left and right. 'Tis the season when various organizations start putting forth their nominees for various awards, and I always devour those lists avidly. But before I offer the ones that have me all agog, let's take a quick Slang-o-rama look at (you guessed it!) agog...

>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
The Online Etymology Dictionary has this adverbial entry:

agog: "in a state of desire; in a state of imagination; heated with the notion of some enjoyment; longing" [Johnson], c. 1400, agogge, probably from Old French en gogues "in jest, good humor, joyfulness," from gogue "fun," which is of unknown origin.

Wiktionary also defines the Old French en gogues as "in a merry mood" and also points to the Italian agognare (“to desire eagerly”). Plus, it additionally defines the adjective agog to mean wide open (eyes), which is actually the definition that first popped to my mind. Merriam-Webster also has a very nice entry that dives a little deeper into the word and provides adjectival synonyms "eager," "agape," "astonished," bustling," and "replete." MW also provides different "first use" dates, with 1663 as an adverb and 1664 as an adjective. 

Now, to the lists!

Nominees for various mystery/crime fiction/nonfiction awards are starting to roll in:

• Nominations for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Awards are here
• Left Coast Crime has its Lefty Award nominees here (and to add excitement to my agog, THE SECRET IN THE WALL is a nominee for the Lefty award for Best Historical Mystery!)
• Malice Domestic has announced the nominees for the Agatha Awards here

Congratulations to ALL nominees, everywhere, and a special shout-out to good buddy Mary Anna Evans who is up for an Edgar and an Agatha for her nonfiction book The Bloomsbury Handbook to Agatha Christie, co-authored with J. C. Bernthal. 

A good place to get the latest greatest news in the mystery corner of the world is Janet Rudolph's Mystery Fanfare blog (plus Janet runs fun cartoons that make me laugh, such as this one about the difference between dogs and cats.)

Stepping out of the world of mystery, let's not forget the Oscar nominations! Along with being an avid reader, I love movies, and am glad to see some of my favorites from last year listed. If you have any favorite films you're agog over, leave a comment and let me know...

Eyes all agog (and a marvelous hat!), circa 1880
By C & R Lavis, Eastbourne - Family collection, Public Domain, Link

From Film to Book

I sat down to write this post, thinking "movies," mostly because The LadyKillers (a group blog I help administer and also post for every other Saturday) has a movie-related theme this coming week. What follows is my real-time, step-by-step journey of serendipity.

It all starts when I wonder: what movies have been set in Leadville, Colorado? Doing a very perfunctory search, I find mention of two: Silver City (2004) and Under Siege 2 (1995).

Attempting to cast my net a little wider, I come upon a list of Movies Filmed in Colorado. What I find interesting is how few “westerns” appear in the list and how many sci-fi/magic/fantasy/horror movies there are! The westerns were mostly filmed back in the 1950s and 1960s: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, True Grit (the version with John Wayne), How the West Was Won, The Searchers… and then, way back in 1926, The Great K&A Train Robbery. 

Intrigued, I dig a little deeper into this last one, which was a western starring Tom Mix. Apparently much of it was filmed in Glenwood Springs, and John Wayne (! see True Grit, above !) worked as a property assistant on the film and appeared as an extra. By my calculations, Wayne would have been 19 years old when the film was released.

It then occurs to me that some of these films might be fun to watch for the scenery. Hmmm. I surf over to Netflix.

Well, really, what was I thinking? A silent film from 1926?

So, I wander over to YouTube and end up spending 10 minutes watching The Great Train Robbery (1903).

Very interesting, but not the “filmed in Colorado” movie I was looking for. In fact, I noodled around and found out The Great Train Robbery was filmed in Milltown, New Jersey. While noodling, I also discovered that there is a 1905 parody, by the same director, titled The Little Train Robbery, which was acted out by children, and features a “bandit queen!” And it is also on YouTube!
 

I drag myself back to my pursuit of The Great K&A Train Robbery. I would like to know where the real robbery took place, now that I know it was based on a “true incident,” but I’m not getting very far and it’s getting very late now. I discover that there are a few copies  of the book (copyright 1897) listed on amazon.com. Gah! I turn to Google books. There it is, as an eBook … FREE! I click DOWNLOAD, and now I have it… if only in electrons.

I still don’t know where the robbery took place, but will find out.

Although this is the end of one journey, it looks like it might also be the start of another. Sometimes it's fun just to wander and see where the roads lead.