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Chris -- 2018-04-11
I’m just barely old enough to have memories of actual slate chalkboards in classrooms. The “wipe the slate clean†idiom is probably a good deal less opaque for me than it is for nearly anyone younger than I am, so I assumed I’d find a number of reshapings of the phrase. Nevertheless I searched for “wipe the sleigh clean†half-jokingly, expecting to googlenope. But what to my wondering eyes should appear but four authentic-looking hits – two by the same author. I’m a lifelong Californian, so I don’t know from sleighs, but I’m told they do indeed need a wiping-down from time to time. Examples:
Lord I’m asking for forgiveness ; I’m sooo sorry for my sins . Please wipe my sleigh clean and throw it into the sea of forgetfulness . I’m sorry , and I love you dearly .
http://prayerstoshare.net/request-10889 … f-tha.html
Lord please forgive me for my crazy sins dear father! I’m completely sorry, and please wipe my sleigh clean..
In Jesus Name,
AmeN
http://prayerstoshare.net/request-14389 … rgive.html
[The last two prayers were both composed by the same author – for whom “wipe my sleigh clean†is clearly standard. It’d admittedly be easier to throw a slate into the sea of forgetfulness than a sleigh, but God can do anything.]
Perhaps we can narrow the point of focus to the fact that the justice system in place world-wide today cannot and does not reward looters,and thieves, and many convicted of such crimes pay retribution, and time to wipe the sleigh clean, no exception. Those who house the stolen loot of those who steal are, of course, accomplices to these illegal acts no less. In that framework, the british looters of the Parthenon back in 1801 along with the current day protectorates of this loot have both committed high acts of robbery.
http://dirkvano.bravejournal.com/entry/26179
#Startingover is another chance/opportunity to wipe the sleigh clean & go forth!
http://twitter.com/he_choze_me/status/10523579984650240
Then there’s “writing the slate clean,†which gets a lot more hits. I like the basic idea at work here. The band The Fall has a wonderful song (well, if you like The Fall) called “Eat Y’self Fitter!†and this reshaping has something of the same homeopathic logic to it. Examples:
It can be understood…if we are willing to write the slate clean of everything we think we know (and erroneously taught) about the kingdom of God, and ask the Holy Spirit to teach us.
http://www.talkjesus.com/115613-post2.html
However much we might want it, no symbol nor letter of apology can write the slate clean.
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/ne … thsAnd.htm
people these days think bankruptcy is an easy way to write the slate clean and have no debts,but it continues to affect your ability to have a mortgage, credit card, hire a car, all sorts of things which you don’t realise.
http://www.newrider.com/forum/archive/i … 89730.html
And then there’s “white the slate clean†– which seems to me less interesting than the rest, but indicates that even a common word like “wipe†in a familiar use can be ripe for reshaping:
For some of us, myself included, a new year is a chance to white the slate clean and start anew.
http://blueshelled.com/2010/01/02/a-new … or-change/
I kinda felt I had to white the slate clean of everything I knew on celebrating Christmas the way I was used too and the way I grew up celebrating.
http://materfamily.blogspot.com/2010/01/santa-baby.html
Now this group can white the slate clean and start again.
http://smokeeatersblog.blogspot.com/200 … rritt.html
Last edited by patschwieterman (2010-12-19 20:56:27)
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Drôle de chez drôle. But isn’t this more of a new year’s post?
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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“Wipe my sleigh clean” is fantastic. A couple of characteristics of recent transcendent eggcorns stand out. First, some took just a slight twist to come out so right. Like Juan’s country banned. And then some you have to laugh at, they’re beyond belief, they’ve confounded your expectations. Like wipe the sleigh clean. Unfortunately the origin of that one is obscured; if it was from a Canadian I might weep.
But at the same time it is mildly disquieting. Maybe because I’ve seen and participated in a lot of sledding accidents. If you push it, it brings to mind “a slaying song tonight”.
Poetic confession, most of which is in Indonesian,
I just wanna try to clean the slay with the hands of un-certainty. What i’ve done? – ehehe – nice intro right?! ... Perhaps i was expecting something for nothing. Did a lot, for a piece of pie. ... And so, becoz of that. You don’t have to think it over, whenever you’d finish reading this. Beneath the surface of my heart. Lies down a perfect shadow of my pasts. It comes last night within my dream. To sick with me. To hurts me. To test me. To live with me.
The second kind brings to mind a section from Bozo Sapiens, by Michael and Ellen Kaplan, a book that in some ways could be a manual for the fallible eggcorner. They explain that there are two special kinds of brain wave patterns in response to verbal cues, the P600 and N400 effects [1]. P600 is an uptick that occurs 600 milliseconds after a grammatical rule violation (or perhaps1200 milliseconds for the slow reactors like me). P is for positive. N400 is a negative damping down that follows something incomprehensible, 400 protective milliseconds after the stimulus. A pun or a verbal joke or “clean my sleigh” fires up P600 but leaves N400 untwinged. So you surf down a glowing wave of “aha”, along an unfamiliar beach. Or sleigh down a fresh hillside or along the road less travelled, I guess.
[1] http://www.literaryreview.co.uk/davis_07_08.html
Last edited by burred (2010-12-20 10:53:12)
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A couple of examples of starting with a clean sleigh too:
... sunday you could organize all your projects like that and on the end of the day erase all data so you can start with a clean sleigh. ...
Personally I think that the Church needs to reform itself, and start with a clean sleigh, instead of keeping defending some of their …
A variant:
Bottom line… they need to wipe the state clean, and start fresh with the current band.
But you just have to start with a clean state and go for it again.
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Most enjoyable. We keep proving, I think, that for every eggcorn there’s a family of them.
*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 a mind-twister. Looks like a pure WTFT, primed by slate, stain, murder and sacrifice.
Gospel doctrine
The Father asked the Son to submit to a brutal murder, after a mostly thankless life of disappointments. And this sacrifice is meant to wipe the slain clean on some pretty graphic sinners.
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I’m in awe. But I’d call it a blend, which gives it the F so it is not a T(ypo), to my mind. (It may also have some anticipation going on of the homeoteleutonic variety, looking forward to the VVn ending on the next word.)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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Pat wrote:
It’d admittedly be easier to throw a slate into the sea of forgetfulness than a sleigh, but God can do anything.
But why bother to wipe it clean before throwing it in? Oh, well, the ways of the Lord, we are told, are past finding out. (Besides, it’s the sort of thing my wife, a very godly woman, would do; throwing it in dirty would never do for her.)
.
Tocayo, I’m unlikely to be able to sing “Jingle Bells†so complacently again for a long time: “to ride and sing a slaying song tonight.†Sounds like EÌomer at the battle of the Pelennor Fields.
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2010-12-20 17:54:39)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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