Posted by Dorothy_MI on 9/11/06 3:57pm
Msg #145226
OT -- In a time of English language paucity of Expression
I received this today and felt it should be posted on this board apros some of the language that has been used here lately. Now this is really understanding the English language and its wonderful usuages to express ourselves without being crude.
"In our time, insults have been reduced to 4-letter words
or ethnic and/or racial slurs. Here are some examples from
previous eras, when substantive human beings used the
power and value of the English language to skewer, gut
and vanguish the objects of their varies venomous vexations.
May we all learn something from them!
ENJOY!
---------------
Subject: When Insults had Class
"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire."
-- Winston Churchill
"A modest little person, with much to be modest about."
-- Winston Churchill
"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries
with great pleasure."
-- Clarence Darrow
"He has never been known to use a word that might send a
reader to the dictionary."
-- William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)
"Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from
big words?"
-- Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)
"Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste
no time reading it."
-- Moses Hadas
"He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of
any man I know."
-- Abraham Lincoln
"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it."
-- Groucho Marx
"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter
saying I approved of it."
-- Mark Twain
"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends."
-- Oscar Wilde
"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new
play, bring a friend... if you have one."
-- George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill
"Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second...
if there is one."
-- Winston Churchill, in response
"I feel so miserable without you, it's almost like having you here."
-- Stephen Bishop
"He is a self-made man and worships his creator."
-- John Bright
"I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial."
-- Irvin S. Cobb
"He is not only dull himself, he is the cause of dullness in others."
-- Samuel Johnson
"He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up."
-- Paul Keating
"He had delusions of adequacy."
-- Walter Kerr
"There's nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won't cure."
-- Jack E. Leonard
"He has the attention span of a lightning bolt."
-- Robert Redford
"They never open their mouths without subtracting from the
sum of human knowledge."
-- Thomas Brackett Reed
"He inherited some good instincts from his Quaker forebears,
but by diligent hard work, he overcame them."
-- James Reston (about Richard Nixon)
"In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily."
-- Charles, Count Talleyrand
"He loves nature in spite of what it did to him."
-- Forrest Tucker
"Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any
address on it?"
-- Mark Twain
"His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork."
-- Mae West
"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go."
-- Oscar Wilde
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts...
for support rather than illumination."
-- Andrew Lang (1844-1912)
"He has Van Gogh's ear for music."
-- Billy Wilder
|
Reply by ReneeK_MI on 9/12/06 6:00am
Msg #145390
Reminded me of a little social experiment I did w/ a Sunday school class of 4th graders (MANY years ago). I challenged them to not only dream up creative terminology to replace the common foul words - but to use them, and WATCH the reactions of their peers.
It was so interesting to witness these kids as they observed what happens - the creative terminology became the "Cooler" thing, and they thrilled at the social 'power' of influencing language around them. (Ahh - 4th graders are just too easy!)
I still use "that really fries my cookies" and I have no clue where that came from. "No Fake" is from around the 70's, and I have to watch that one - sometimes the phone reception causes a little misunderstanding!
|
