MAGIC WORDS desperation he tried the magic word again. 'Pliss? Pliss!'" -- Elizabeth Peters, Guardian of the Horizon (2004) In Literature: • "'Perhaps there's a magic word or something.' 'I don't know any magic words,' said Tristran. He held the chain up. It glittered red and purple in the light of the setting sun. 'Please?' he said. There was a ripple in the fabric of the chain, and he slid his hand out of it." -- Neil Gaiman, Stardust (200 ) • "I took a step toward him. 'Please.' I suppose the magic word worked, because he reached for the brass knobs of the high double doors and swung them wide." -- Neal Shusterman, The Dark Side of Nowhere (1997) • "The chicken started trotting. There was no way I was going to try the classic 'abracadabra' or 'hocus pocus' magic words to stop a charging chicken. And don't even remind me of that 'please' and 'thank you' mistake I made earlier in my career." -- Jon Scieszka, Summer Reading Is Killing Me (1998) • "'Magic word? What's the magic word?' The knocker perceptibly sneered. 'Haff you been taught nothing, miss?' . . . 'I have been educated,' she informed it with icy precision, 'by some of the finest scholars in the land.' The doorknocker did not appear to be impressed. 'Iff they didn't teach you the magic word,' it said calmly, 'they couldn't haff fbeen all that fine.' ... 'Please help me,' she said. 'Please!' 'See?' said the doorknocker triumphantly. 'Sooner or later everyone remembers the magic word!'" -- Terry Pratchett, Mort (1987) • "One friend I've never met in the material world is Eri, a librarian from North Carolina who has a wicked sense of humor: a sign on the floor of Eri's dwelling in Cyberion City says 'Caution, black hole.' If you make the mistake of looking in the black hole, you fall into the basement, where you discover that the look command only gets you the message 'The basement is dark.' Then you try a bunch of commands, and you get the message 'Say the magic word.' And if you say 'shazam' or 'abracadabra,' you get the message 'Say the magic word your mommy taught you.' When you say 'Please,' Eri's black hole lets you back into her living room." -- Howard Rheingold, The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier (199 ) • "Judy was fond of telling a story of long long ago when Pat had been four years old and was being trained to say 'please.' One day she could not remember it. 'What is the word that makes things happen, Judy?' she had asked. Oh, for such a magic word now . . . some word which would make everything right for Jingle." -- Lucy Maud Montgomery, Pat of Silver Bush (19 )