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Mangling the classics
Jul. 16th, 2004 09:37 am#1: Seen on the side of a bus yesterday, a two-panel ad.
Panel 1: a cartoon tortoise, cartoon hare, a racetrack, and a brand of painkiller whose name I forget. Tortoise and Hare are obviously gearing up to race.
Panel 2: Tortoise has fallen well behind, Hare is sprinting ahead, and is just a few yards short of the finish line. Caption: "When it comes to pain relief, we're the hare."
...
#2: Read in an otherwise-quite-good book, attempting to explain a quirk of psychology:
"I will borrow here from the image of the Goddess, who is a composite of virgin, maiden and crone, to describe how these forces, desires and needs coalesce within me..." Then goes on to discuss the separate role each of these three aspects play in the writer's psyche.
Argh!
And a freebie: the word 'decimate' does NOT mean 'to kill 90%' of whatever group. It means ten percent. Originally it was a Roman custom: when a legion was defeated in battle, every tenth man from the legion would be killed, as a way of discouraging failure.
My deputy headmaster Mr. Windeyer, being somewhat of a classically trained ogre, knew the correct meaning and applied it, albeit in a non-lethal manner.
Oh, and for the DIYers among us: How to build your own flamethrower.
Panel 1: a cartoon tortoise, cartoon hare, a racetrack, and a brand of painkiller whose name I forget. Tortoise and Hare are obviously gearing up to race.
Panel 2: Tortoise has fallen well behind, Hare is sprinting ahead, and is just a few yards short of the finish line. Caption: "When it comes to pain relief, we're the hare."
...
#2: Read in an otherwise-quite-good book, attempting to explain a quirk of psychology:
"I will borrow here from the image of the Goddess, who is a composite of virgin, maiden and crone, to describe how these forces, desires and needs coalesce within me..." Then goes on to discuss the separate role each of these three aspects play in the writer's psyche.
Argh!
And a freebie: the word 'decimate' does NOT mean 'to kill 90%' of whatever group. It means ten percent. Originally it was a Roman custom: when a legion was defeated in battle, every tenth man from the legion would be killed, as a way of discouraging failure.
My deputy headmaster Mr. Windeyer, being somewhat of a classically trained ogre, knew the correct meaning and applied it, albeit in a non-lethal manner.
Oh, and for the DIYers among us: How to build your own flamethrower.
