o
9
now the new word would have no meaning to me, had destroyed my picture,
had become strange, unfriendly and unknown.'" -- Andrew Wilson,
Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith (200 )
• "When George was alone at a meal, formally served him in the dining
room in his high chair, and he did not like something he was given to eat,
he repeated the lordly gesture and the lordly phrase [his father's "Enlevezle"]
and was delighted to see that, like 'Open Sesame' in reverse, he could
thus have the unhappy cabbage, or whatever it was, removed from sight."
-- May Sarton, I Knew a Phoenix (1954)
• "The magic influence of 'open sesame' could not have been more effective
upon bolts and bars." -- Ben Macintyre, The Man Who Would Be King (2004)
• "'There's no door handle,' he called as I walked down the hallway of posters.
'Just say the magic words.' 'Abracadabra,' I said standing in front of
the door. 'No,' called Ott. 'That's for getting in. The other words.' 'Open
Sesame,' I said. The door swung open suddenly, missing me by a few
inches." -- Stuart M. Kaminsky, Now You See It (2004)
• From Louis Zukofsky, Complete Short Poetry (1991):
Open Sesame, Ali Baba, I, thy firefly, little errant star, call here,
By thy magic I embrace thee.
• "[E]ven when my grandfather sat in his salmon upholstered lounge chair
and trapped me between his crossed ankles, refusing to release me until
I said the magic words, Open sesame, I never felt the desperate need to escape."
-- Hope Edelman, Mother of My Mother (1999)
Open Space
Facts: "'What are the magic words?' asks the magician. 'Open Space!' yell
dozens of school kids watching one of Paul Becker's Great Environmental
Magic Shows."54
Opopomoz
Origins: This is an Italian magic word from the animated film Opopomoz
(200 ), taught to a little boy by three mischievous devils.
54 "New Jersey's Great Northwest Skylands," NewJerseySkylands.WorldWeb.com
(2005)