regale

\rih-GAIL\

verb

1 : to entertain sumptuously : to feast with delicacies

2 : to give pleasure or amusement to

From the french verb régaler via the Middle French galer, to have a good time, comes the English REGALE, borrowed, with no intention for return, during the mid-seventeenth century. Adding the prefix re- somewhere along the line seems to suggest the festivities in question are in fact on the second go-round. Sex with an ex. A high school reunion. Rereading Dean Koontz. While the definition doesn't imply this idea, I'm going to go with it.

There's something particularly sad about trying to recreate a good time. This forced REGALING is an inevitable path to failure, or at best to a gross slight of expectation and a bittersweet realization that what once was awesome can never again be as awesome as it once was.

I experience this ALL THE TIME when I attempt to watch movies I adored in my childhood. Some films that fell short of their REGALING:

Mystic Pizza

Howard the Duck

She's Out of Control

Miracle Beach

Neverending Story II (part I is still phenomenal)

Mannequin

Some that are STILL as fantastic as I remembered:

Ghostbusters 1 AND 2 (always and forever)

One Crazy Summer

Sixteen Candles

Some I have yet to revisit—

Adventures in Babysitting

That Night

The Sandlot

—for extreme fear that they will disappoint. Some things are just better left alone.