I was fooling around with something called Google SMS... it seems to be a search service available via texting on your cell phone... looks very handy, by the way... one of the things it apprarently offers is a glossary/dictionary service... I tried a few words, "glossary iconoclast" came out okay, sort of... something else didn't (wiped from my memory already)... then I tried "define ballerina" just to see what would happen:

Glossary:
BALLERINA: Baltic Sea Region Online Environmental Information Resources for Internet Access
Source: maritimecompliance.com/glossary.php


(I suppose when they get the bugs out of the system it won't be free anymore. )

Here's the link: http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/mobile/de.../sms/index.html

pas de deux: father of twins.

Source: www.biocrawler.com/encyclopedia/Franglais

Grand pas classique = the Great Old Man of ballet.

Love that Google site: turns out that ABT stands for "Actual Bottom Time" (if you're a diver). "Bolshoi" turns out to refer to "farmers' undergarments."

Surprisingly, Sylphide is a "fighter used by the Tactics Air Force. This fighter can also be distinguished by a center tail as well as vertical". That really changes one's image of the ballet. She fights!!! And when she dies, her multiple tails fall off, not her wings.

A Corella is a kind of white cockatoo from Australia. Acosta is a small impact crater on the moon. Swan Lake was actually located in the now-defunct Texas theme park, Hanna-Barbera Land. After the park closed, Odette moved to Europe, retrained in telecommunications, and gave her name to be used as the acronym for the Organization for Data Exchange.

Returning the "pas" theme: Petipa - a father who's small-minded.

Also, surely, something can be done with the ambiguities surrounding the word "attitude."

A sault and batterie: a felony or just beating a dead horse?

I think you all just redeemed August!

Pas de chat -- Father of Instant Messaging