K Kaboom In a word: kaboom. -- Harlan Coben, Fade Away (1996) Mystique: Kaboom is a bombshell. It's an entire pyrotechnics display in a single magic word. It's a sparkling firecracker,1 and at the same time it's a heart racing with excitement: "My heart was pounding a steady kaboomkaboom at a rate of about 120. Oh, this was going to be fun." Facts: Kaboom is the name of a card trick designed by Jon Allen involving a small bomb prop (Misdirections.com). In Literature: • Sarah Ban Breathnach, Romancing the Ordinary (2002) • "[W]ave a magic wand, chant a few magic phrases, and presto, kaboom, abracadabra, the magic just happens." -- Sirona Knight, Dream Magic (2000) • "Try raising power again, but this time when you 'Kaboom' it, envision a circular web of golden sticky stars around, above, and below you." -- Silver Ravenwood, To Stir a Magick Cauldron (200 ) Kadabra (see abra, abracadabra, and cadabra) Facts: Kadabra is the name of the walled, glass-roofed capital city of the Okar nation of Mars in Warlord of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (191 ). In the Pokemon card game, the character Abra evolves into Kadabra and finally into Alakazam, who has strong psychic powers. Variations and Incantations: • Cadabra • Kadabra Sesameanie "To make a wish-granting genie appear, just say, with childlike candor: Kadabra, Sesameanie, I conjure me a genie." -- Reneau H. Reneau, Misanthropology: A Florilegium of Bahumbuggery (2004) • Kedavra 1 "[B]oys outside didn't lose fingers setting off kabooms . . ." -- Amy Klatzkin, A Passage to the Heart (1999) 2 Richard Marcinko, Rogue Warrior (1992)