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Chris -- 2025-05-10
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I remember reading, years ago, about a contest sponsored, if I remember rightly, by the Times (the British one) for the conjugation of irregular adjectives (and an occasional noun or verb) into 1st, 2nd and 3rd persons. For instance,
I am firm; you are obstinate; he is a pig-headed fool.
I am flexible; you are wishy-washy; he flaps in the breeze.
I have reconsidered it; you have changed your mind; he has gone back on his word.
I have something about me of the subtle, haunting fragrance of the Orient; you rather overdo it, dear; she stinks.
You get the idea.
Any of you remember the game?
Come up with any new ones?
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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Here’s one I’ve seen frequently on Usenet:
I have preferences. You have biases. He/She has prejudices.
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There’s an advertising campaign in the NYC subways (and elsewhere here) that is similar.
There’s a pic reproduced three times, w/ a different one-word label under it each time.
Say, a fat wallet sitting in the middle of the road
disaster temptation responsibility
“It’s all in the perspective” or “different ways of looking at the world” is the tag line.
a container of bottled water
fashionable convenient wasteful
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I think several of these are hovering, mockingly, just out of range of my tiny memory. All I can manage at the moment is the old exhortation to pointless gentility: ‘Horses sweat, men perspire, but ladies just gently glow.’
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Yes, I remember that one.
I have a healthy appetite/am a gourmet; you eat too much/are a gourmand; he has both feet in the trough.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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