Sunday Evening

Sunday evening is my favorite time of the weekend. After a busy Saturday, church on Sunday morning, an afternoon of cooking and baking, our Sunday afternoon movie on DVD (Today's film was The Last of the Mohicans), and a fine Sunday dinner, I look forward to Sunday evening, when I can relax, read, watch Masterpiece Theater, and blog.

This evening, instead of Masterpiece Theatre, I am watching the annual Emmy Awards, which honors the best accomplishments in television. I am terribly disappointed that the inimitable Michael Emerson, an actor on the program Lost, did not win the Best Supporting Actor Award. He plays the most sinister villain since Peter Lorre in M and is unequaled in his ability to give his role as Ben Linus depth, pathos, and enough ambiguity to make viewers wonder if he really is the evil man he seems to be. Award or not, he will doubtlessly be nominated again, and even if he is not, he will long be remembered for his performance on Lost.

I think watching television on Sunday evening is a good diversion because I can escape reality by getting involved in the mysteries or literary dramas, but on the Emmy Awards tonight everyone seems to want to bring us back to the political realities of an election year. If I wanted that, I'd watch the news.

Vocabulary
Sunday dinner (noun) -- Traditionally, a special weekly family meal with meat on Sunday afternoon or early evening
inimitable (adjective) -- impossible to emulate (from the word imitate)
sinister (adjective) -- threatening evil
pathos (noun)-- a quality that arouses pity
ambiguity (noun) -- a doubtful meaning
nominate (verb) -- to propose as a candidate for an award

Fill in the blanks with the correct vocabulary word:

1. The house was dark and creepy;its atmosphere was _______________.
2. Even though the orphan had commited a crime, there was a certain _________ about him that made us feel sorry for him.
3. Many American families look forward to ___________ _____________, when they gather around the table to tals to each other and enjoy good food.
4. Alexander Solzhenitsyn was ______________ for the Nobel Prize for Literature.
5. There is no one like him. He is ________________.
6. It was hard to tell if the speaker was sincere because there was ___________ in his voice.

TV Shows: Masterpiece Theater, Lost, Emmy Awards
Fims: The Last of the Mohicans, M

Grammar Point: Using Adjectives
Adjectives modify nouns. That means that they change and refine the meanings of the nouns. They make your writing more interesting.
For example, it is much more interesting to read about a "sinister villain" than just a "villain," and about the "inimitable Michael Emerson" than just Michael Emerson.
Now you try it: Think of an actor you like. What adjectives can you use to describe him or her?