W 4 5 "Lewis told me that some wizard put a magical whammy on the bridge." -- Brad Strickland, The Beast Under the Wizard's Bridge (2002) • Voilà "You get a wolf-hide belt, put it on, say the magic words, and whammy, you're a wolf. A Hexenwolf." -- Jim Butcher, Full Moon (2001) Variations and Incantations: • Whim-whammy "I don't suppose you can use your whim-whammies to conjure up a cold six-pack, can you?" -- K.A. Applegate, Everworld 4 (1999) What If (see also if) Be a magician: ask "what if." -- Roger von Oech, A Whack On the Side of the Head: How to Unlock Your Mind for Innovation (198 ) Mystique: "'What if . . .' The room fell quiet. Those two magic words can instantly rivet the attention of an entire room." The words what if are an "open sesame" to a world where anything is possible. They ignite suspended disbelief, allowing our eyes to be deceived. What if calls upon us to question the rational and expand the limits of what is possible. Like a poet who lets his imagination flow and creates miracles on paper, the magician asks "What if ? What if this could happen -- or this? And then it happens, because [he] lets the magic flow." In Literature: • "What if, what if, what if, what if ? The world can change in a minute." -- Kevin Henkes, Olive's Ocean (2005) Whatever Happens Mystique: Whatever happens is a mantra, of sorts, embracing the whims of the Foruna, the goddess of luck or chance. In Literature: • "As her mind gradually cleared, she became aware of the two words that seemed to stand before her mental vision in letters of fire: 'Whatever hapThe Imagineering Way (200 ) Robert Currie, quoted in The Place My Words Are Looking For: What Poets Say About and Through Their Work by Paul B. Janeczko (1990)