Angus Trumble
Master of the Rolls
AUS

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SMILE INTERVENTION PROJECT / INTERDISCIPLINARY INDEX OF THE TERMINOLOGY OF SMILING
Angus Trumble is currently working on a book about smiling - why people do it, when it became socially acceptable and why, which sort means what, and why so many smile synonyms indicate states of mind firmly rooted in dishonesty or lewdness. His researches will be conducted on a scientific basis, and his role as Master of the Rolls in the Department of Global Nostaglia at ICOLS has provided him with the perfect laboratory in which to conduct certain behavioural experiments. Several of these will involve focus groups, recruited internationally.

Participants will be invited to submit to a smile cognition test. This is entirely voluntary. Electrodes will be provided (and, if necessary, fitted by local ICOLS personnel), so that exact emotional and physical responses to various different types of smile may be studied in some detail. Random photographs of smiling celebrities such as the Dalai Lama, the late Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, Chairman Mao, Secretary Kissinger, Liz Taylor, Mahatma Gandhi and Leonardo di Caprio will appear on this page for several seconds, and each participant's reaction - including eye-blink rate, fluctuations of the iris, blood pressure, any cardiovascular or gastric disturbances - captured, plotted, documented and stored for analysis. Participants will be advised ahead of time if, in the unlikely event, urine samples are sought.

Angus Trumble has also secured the cooperation of ICOLS in pursuing the Smile Intervention Project, a study of the genesis of smiling in highly inhospitable environments. A good deal of field work is anticipated. The purpose of this venture is to discover what external or environmental conditions are required before various kinds of smiling are stimulated in subjects as diverse as, say, Pope John Paul II while deep in prayer or Slobodan Milosevic in the dock at the war crimes tribunal. Various experimental prompts will be documented by means of video and sound recordings that will, in due course, be accessible through this page. To preserve spontaneity and immediacy it has been decided not to inform our subjects that they are being studied in this way. It has also been decided that physical stimuli such as tickling, prodding, poking or striking with harmless missiles like ping-pong balls are quite inappropriate, if for no other reason than that they generally cause anger or, occasionally, laughter, completely different phenomena which we wish to avoid.

KEYWORDS

smile, twinkle, ogle, leer, smirk, grin, simper, beam, sparkle, pout, moue

PHRASES

Cheshire cat, to grin like a; lip, to curl one's; lips, to smack one's; radiate, to; smile, to break into a; smile, to unleash a; smile, to unfurl a; smile, to flash a; smile, the, archaic; smile, the, Mona Lisa; smile, the, beatific; smile, the, of reason; smile, the, cruel; smile, the, cool (frosty, chilling, arctic); smile, the, warm (electric, over-heated, volcanic)

RELATED CONCEPTS

grinning-match, the; snigger, to (SEE ALSO chortle, to; laughter, suppressed, ETC.); grimace, to; grimace, to, (hideously); at ease, to be (perfectly); auspicious, to be; shine on, to; teeth, to lie through one's; teeth, to grit; teeth, by the skin of one's. SEE ALSO breeziness, sunniness, cheerfulness, happiness, winsomeness, gladsomeness, wholesomeness, brightness, buoyancy, sociability, warmth, decorum, slight affectation, affectation, grotesque affectation, naughtiness, deceit, lavatory humour, cheekiness, mendacity, jocularity, licence, bloodlust, envy, pride AND greed.

Additions to this list, as well as equivalent and/or alternative forms in any world language (ancient and modern) are currently being sought from readers and contributors all over the world. Interested persons should apply to angustrumble@bigpond.com. This data will form the nucleus of a new Inter-Disciplinary Index of the Terminology of Smiling (IDITS), to be compiled on historical principles. IDITS will also be accessible through the ICOLS Department of Global Nostalgia.