Maxims, platitudes, quotable quotes and pithy remarks
— or —
English is a weird and wonderful language

Occasionally I come up with amusing English one-liners, phrases or curiosities. I admit that they tend to use the fullest extent of the English language.

All pedagogues are crypto-thespians.

Sounds dreadful. Are we sure this isn't againt the law in redneck-country?

During my morning ablutions, I titivated myself.

I acknowledge that the word titivate was introduced to me by a colleague who (I suspect) had the benefit of an English Grammar school education.

True to Dadaism, I assume a grandiloquent didactic posture to express the dialectic of the obvious.

Translation: I describe counter-culture ideas by using big words to teach you things that are obviously true.

It's called a workout, not an easyout.

Did you really think that after an hour on the elliptical and treadmill, with three sets of three exercises with 15 reps each, that I wouldn't be all sweaty and out of breath?

oxymoronic  adj.

Of or pertaining to an oxymoron; spec. in reference to a self-contradicting person.

2015
T.Grove grove.ca As usual, our politicians are being oxymoronic.

burn { up, down, in, out }

Why is it that burn up and burn down mean the same thing (more or less), but burn in has nothing do with burn out (nor up nor down, for that matter)?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Word of the day

Misandrist

platitude, aphorism, maxim, metaphor, saying, similie, allegory, truism, witticism, proverb, adage, epigram, alliteration

are not synonyms, so don't use them interchangeably. Please.

Verbing weirds language.

I wish I could claim this, but Calvin and Hobbes (1993) is likely from where it I got. More serious discussions of the linguistics can be found in the Wikipedia and elsewhere.


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