H is for What the H? Help for Hoons

And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.

~ Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

Back in January, I began the One Page a Day Challenge and immediately threw away my quill.  Now in April, I’m participating in the A to Z Blogging Challenge and prepping for a Wilderness Writers’ Retreat.  I need ink, a stiff drink and therapy.

D

eadlines scare the organic material out of me, which is why I love these blogging challenges ~ they force me to write something publishable every day.

Themed challenges are great for pushing me out of my writerly box and stretching my ink stained writerly muscles.

My thoughts these days resemble an escalator: “H is for…what?  Think, brain, think!

Hot

Heroes

Hot heroes

Hoon

Help!”

I didn't have a plan going into this challenge ~ a theme to the tie all 26 letters/posts together.  My Kodiak trip is on my mind right now, as is my garden/hobby farm.  And of course, writing.

Heck, this time I was stumped.

So I turned to my social network for….help.

H is for Help

My friends aren't hoons.
Image credit: Likecool.com

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in setting up my hobby farm is that no man ~ or woman ~ is an island.  Or a lone acre as it were.  Community is part and parcel of farming/gardening.  So why not writing about it?

Here’s what my wild and wacky friends came up with:

Heart of Palm

Hubbard Squash

Halcyon

Habanero chili

Habenero Peppers

Haboneros

Hairy Melon

Hazelnut

Honeydew

Haddock

Haggis (Scottish)

Hairy crabs

Hake fish

Ham

Honey

Hummus

Halavah

Hot cross bun

How (ha!) cool is that?  But I decided to go with my original word….

H is also for Hoon

Avid reader doesn’t even come close to how voracious I am when it comes to the written word.  Books are my addiction, my drug, my sun and moon…you get the picture.

I read to escape. I read to learn.  I love it when both come together.

Recently I read a book ~ well several, actually ~ by Australian author Angela Verdenius.  They’re quirky, fun, short, sexy, and I learned quite a bit of Aussie slang from them.

But my favorite Aussie word by far was hoon.

“I heard he forced you off the road into the parking bay.  Adam doesn’t like hoons, you know.”

“I’m not a hoon!”

“You just go home.  Being arrested will shake the nerves up of any decent woman, hoon or not.” (Call on Me)

Basically, what they call a hoon Down Under is what we call an aggressive driver here in the States ~ someone who drives in an anti-social manner.  Hoon is so much more fun to say.  I smile and laugh every time I read it.  Hearing it is quite a hoot.

Oh, and thanks to all my friends for their “H” help.  

I’d be a hoon not to appreciate them.

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

Learn any foreign slang in your readings lately?