Here is a word I didn’t know:
Anodyne
Not likely to provoke dissent or offense; inoffensive, often deliberately so.
Tag: David L. Gersh
The Truth
A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can get out of bed and lace up its boots.
Winston Churchill (maybe), Mark Twain (probably not) and others
The Riot Act
Did your Mother ever read you the riot act? Well, she had really good history behind her.
In 1714, Parliament, at the behest of King George I, enacted the Riot Act. He was nervous about his subjects. If 12 or more people gathered in “tumultuous assembly,” a magistrate could read aloud the the Riot Act. Thereafter, they had one hour to disperse or could be arrested.
You only had to contend with your father.
Museum
Museum means house of the muses. How about that?
The Mark
Con artists call their victim a “mark.” Ever wonder how the term was derive. In the old carnival days, the barkers would look for a chalk mark on a suckers back, put there by a prior barker. Then he knew he had a mark.
Dangling Participle
When asked about his views of a dangling participial, Churchill responded:
“That is something up with which I will not put.”
Music
Think about this. All western music, all classical, jazz, country, pop, r&b, rock& roll, and everything else is made up of only 12 notes. Just 12 notes!
The Cat
I’d like to let “the cat out of the bag,” but golly, I can’t:
The derivation of the phrase is not clear. One suggestion is that the phrase refers to the whip-like “cat o’nine tails,” an instrument of punishment once used on Royal Navy vessels. The instrument was purportedly stored in a red sack, and a sailor who revealed the transgressions of another would be “letting the cat out of the bag.” Another suggested derivation is from the “pig in a poke” scam, where a customer buying a suckling pig in a sack would actually be sold a (less valuable) cat, and would not realise the deception until the bag was opened.
Both of these suggestions are rejected by Snopes.com, who find no evidence of it originating in naval slang, nor of whips being stored in sacks, and consider it “nigh on impossible to mistake a cat for a pig.”
I favor the naval version myself. Your guess may be better than mine.
Body guard of lies
The truth is so rare and precious, it needs to be surrounded by a body guard of lies.
Winston Churchill.
May I Feel, Said He
People think of ee cummings as avant garde and incomprehensible and avoid him like the plague. Well, sometimes he is. But he is also one of the great romantics and very funny. Try this one and see if you perhaps can understand it. Hugs
may i feel said he
by e e cummings
may i feel said he
(i’ll squeal said she
just once said he)
it’s fun said she
(may i touch said he
how much said she
a lot said he)
why not said she
(let’s go said he
not too far said she
what’s too far said he
where you are said she)
may i stay said he
(which way said she
like this said he
if you kiss said she
may i move said he
is it love said she)
if you’re willing said he
(but you’re killing said she
but it’s life said he
but your wife said she
now said he)
ow said she
(tiptop said he
don’t stop said she
oh no said he)
go slow said she
(cccome?said he
ummm said she)
you’re divine!said he
(you are Mine said she)
David Gersh 