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Fire Escape Partners
3465 25th Street, Suite 17
San Francisco, CA 94110 | (adjective, adverb, noun)
[im-PROMP-too, im-PROMP-tyoo] 
adjective
1. provoked or prompted by the occasion, not premeditated; 'an impromptu celebration'
2. composed, performed, or spoken without advance preparation; extemporaneous: "The impromptu story, a conglomerate of all the fairy-tales Julie could remember, was enough to put Mark to sleep."
adverb
3. without advance preparation; extemporaneously noun
4. something performed or said extemporaneously
5. (as in music) a short instrumental composition in a style that suggests improvisation
Origin:
Approximately 1669; borrowed from French, 'impromptu'; from Latin, 'in promptu': in readiness ('in': in + 'promptu': ablative of 'promptus': readiness, from past participle of 'promere': to bring out). In action:
"But Jacobs emphasized that many changes can be made without spending a lot of -- or any -- money.
Schools can use phone books to raise monitors to eye level and serve as impromptu footrests. An old towel can double as a backrest.
...'I'm hoping that in the classes (Jacobs) worked with, the teachers will integrate some of these (ergonomics) lessons with the kids,' Chamberlain said.
Monna Greenstreet's computer literacy classes at Hillside Middle School in Manchester, New Hampshire, also learned good ergonomic strategies and it's made students more aware of good posture and taking breaks.
'I'm not sure that the problems would crop up in a 40-minute period, but that doesn't mean that we can't make our students aware,' Greenstreet said."
Katie Dean. "Stretching Minds, Bodies in Class," Wired.com (September 30, 2002).
"Circling Zero is intensely personal--in visual terms, it's totally first-person--but it's also a portrait of the body politic. The crowds of cops, volunteers, vendors, and tourists that circle the absence are as organic as antibodies surrounding a wound. The tape's last half explores another fact of nature: the Sargasso Sea of flowers, votive candles, and handmade placards that consumed Union Square last fall. Jacobs is fascinated by the fantastic assemblage and new public space. The impromptu performances and metaphysical debates of this spontaneous agora are, in every sense, signs of life."
J. Hoberman. "Invisible Cities," The Village Voice (September 4 - 10, 2002).
"... in general, the Anglo-Irish do not make good dancers; they are too spritely and conscious; they are incapable of one kind of trance or of being seemingly impersonal. And, for the formal, pure dance they lack the formality: about their stylishness (for they have stylishness) there is something impromptu, slightly disorderly."
Elizabeth Bowen (1899�1973). British novelist, story writer, essayist and memoirist; born in Ireland. Seven Winters (1962).
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