Tyra Banks And Shakespeare

24 September, 2009

Kudos to the inventiveness of Tyra Banks, and a big cyber high-five for her optimistic nerve as well. There’s just no end to the entertaining and educational opportunities on Dish Network! Last night on Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show, the featured ‘moment of zen’ displayed Tyra Banks bravely trying to teach Larry King how to “smize.”

I’m not sure that’s the correct spelling. Possibly it’s “smeyes”…? In any case, you may be wondering what exactly it means. Smize (we’ll go with that spelling until we know better) is a verb, meaning (per Ms. Banks’ definition) to “smile with one’s eyes.” Okay then. For most of us the word probably sounds odd, but we should applaud the literary effort. After all, Shakespeare invented 1,700 words. No doubt his contemporaries in late 1500’s era England were initially a little taken aback when the words ‘dwindle’, ‘gnarled’ and ‘seamy’ first fell upon their ears.

And for all his originality and creative prowess, I’m not sure even Shakespeare would have had the nerve to attempt teaching Larry King how to smize.