88 MAGIC WORDS Shallakazam (see allakazam) Variations and Incantations: • Shalakazam -- Marek Kohn, "Sir Teo's Quest" (2000) In Literature: • "'Anybody know any incantations?' Leo shrugged. 'Abracadabra? Shallakazam?'" -- Charles Harrington Elster, Tooth and Nail: A Novel Approach to the New SAT (1994) Sharing In Literature: • "Sharing is a splendid, special thing . . . That's our magic word!" -- Mal Leicester, Stories for Classroom and Assembly (200 ) Shazam To rub the golden lamp and say the magic word 'Shazzam!' is to force the genie to do your bidding. -- Dwight Pryor, "Patterns and Principles of Jewish Prayer" (2004) Mystique: Not every magic word comes with a built-in puff of smoke. With shazam comes all the power of a lightning bolt. When spoken, this mysterious, musical word takes flight as if blown by the wind, with a hard shhh, then sizzles with the electrical zzz before slamming home with the final am. Shazam is an entire special effects package: a flash of light, a thunderous clap, a billowing cloud, and ripples of astonishment in its wake. Shazam so captures the sense of astonishment that it's popularly used as an expression of wonder (much like "holy smoke!"). Rich in history, its evocative Arabian flavor enchants us like a cloud of swirling incense, sparking our imagination with visions of magic lamps, conjured genies, and wishes granted. But the word is so profoundly powerful that it has come to be associated with virtu ally any act of magic with a "wow" factor, any truly "electrifying moment."24 2 "[I was] expecting a whole-hog genie to shoot back out, shazam." -- Jamie Gil- son, Hello, My Name is Scrambled Eggs (1985) 24 Tom Stoppard, Dogg's Hamlet (1980). As Margaret Weis puts its, "The words of magic flame in the mind" (Dragons of Autumn Twilight [1984]).