Thing To Indulge In Today: pandiculation.

The pandiculation The Word Den is encouraging today hasn't got much to do with pandas.

This is a pity, because otherwise we would be able to eat for fourteen hours a day, sleep most of the rest, and never have to bother to apply mascara.

Even so, pandas might well pandiculate, because to pandiculate is to have a good stretch upon waking.

The act of pandiculation can also take in yawning - either by itself, or as part of the stretching process.

Many inhabitants of the earth pandiculate if we're talking about yawning, though it's not always part of the waking-up process. A guinea-pig's yawn is aggressive; a penguin's yawn is part of a courtship process (as it is very often with humans); a snake might yawn after a good meal (also a trait shared with humans).

And, yes, pandas yawn, too:

(Yes, that's an example of panda pandiculation.)

Yawning is rather ridiculous behaviour, I'm afraid: but pandiculation...that has some weight and dignity to it. 

So I think we can now all become just slightly more pleased with ourselves.

Thing To Indulge In Today: pandiculation. This word comes from the Latin pandiculari, from pendere, to stretch.