Amuse-bouche: Ugly as sin.

Meaning: extremely ugly.

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Today’s Wonderful Word: “nickelodeon.”

Definition: an early movie theater to which admission usually cost five cents.

Etymology: From 1888, as the name of a theater in Boston. By 1909 as “a motion picture theater,” from nickel “five-cent coin” (the cost to view one) + –odeon, as in Melodeon (1840) “music hall,” ultimately from Greek oideion “building for musical performances”. The meaning “nickel jukebox” was first attested in 1938.

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When I think of the expression “Ugly as sin,” I think of two things. 

Spiders and Cousin Eddie from Christmas Vacation.

They are both frightening and strange. Ugly in the worst ways, yet you can’t help but admire them for what they are.

Gives me the heebie-jeebies. So, that was the amuse-bouche. Our Wonderful Word today is fascinating. The etymology is straightforward: pay a nickel for an odeon. We don’t have these anymore apparently. I’d be happy to pay a nickel to see a movie. I wish we had nickelodeons nowadays. At least we have the channel Nickelodeon. Thank you, Nickelodeon, for bringing us SpongeBob SquarePants.

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Answer to Saturday’s riddle:

The numbers are in alphabetical order. Eight, five, four, nine, one, seven, six, three, two, zero.