"When it hurts too much, it really doesn't hurt at all." So said my daughter's boyfriend's nephew yesterday. He's 7 and 3/4, sometimes confused with 7 and 1/2 but not the same thing at all. Context? He was telling us about feeding a hungry donkey (a bit bitey) through an electric fence and that was his response to "I bet that hurt!" I need to stick around that kid. He said he'd keep my wife and me in mind when Minions comes out and next time I'll bring a notepad.
I can take you in as pig or pork. Makes no difference to me. - Gunsmoke Marshall Matt Dillon to a captured fugitive.
"Unthanks" There's actually an English folk group called the Unthanks; they did the song that plays at the end of Detectorists, which is brilliant, as the folks across the pond say. I thought their name was a snarky joke but it turns out it's the last name of two sisters in the group. Still gonna use "unthank" as a snarky joke tho.
From the 404 Not Found page of my pharmacy's login: The origin server did not find a current representation for the target resource or is not willing to disclose that one exists. Well, excuse me.
In writing, I often like writing “I suppose..” before proceeding to justify why they behaved a certain way like “I suppose, I was out of myself” or “I suppose I was a little messed up”.
"Bless your heart." Old Southern Saying This phase can mean any thing from 'I love you' to 'fuck you', depending on the context and inflection.
"As you are now, so once was I, as I am now, so you must be, prepare for death and follow me." Gravestone, bleached skull saying.
I like this from Hyperion: "After much questioning, I had ascertained that they had killed Tuk to make him die and that he had died because he had been killed."
I like this bizarre line from "A Clockwork Orange." The MC is lying in bed listening to music. He loves Classical. (This is an understatement.) He's talking about the music moving through him, where he can feel it inside. He speaks in Old Testament patterns combined with odd slang that Britishizes Russian and Gypsy phrases. You'll need to understand the following: gulliver == from the Russian "golova," meaning "head" timps == timpanis (the drums) "Oh, it was gorgeousness and gorgeosity made flesh. The trombones crunched redgold under my bed, and behind my gulliver the trumpets three-wise silverflamed, and there by the door the timps rolling through my guts and out again crunched like candy thunder." I like how it has these deliberate reps (gorgeousness and gorgeosity) that are poetically viscous (can't think of another way to describe that), and then does another rep with "crunch" to end on "crunched like candy thunder." I remember exactly where I was at when I heard that line, and I had to rewind the audio to listen to it again. Something so bold wouldn't work in most books, but "A Clockwork Orange" is weirdly aggressive with its voice, and this actually blends in. Those lines are even balanced, meaning they're in high contrast, because contrasting structures hold tight. Sentence by sentence balance comes from differences, not similarities. So the first line is a short casual statement. It's static, a statement of being. And the second line is a long sensory additive sentence with direct action verbs. A book on writing could dedicate an entire chapter to those two lines. What's going on there is just genius. But the story has to contain it. It's not as if you can drop such a line into any old story. It's a cool line to me. I don't think I've ever seen any site/book mention it as excellent, so I'm the first! See, if it were me, all I'd be able to use is "candy thunder." . . . and the candy thunder of the timpanis shocking your bones. Some line like that would be all I'd dare. It's probably better to end on the strongest phrase (candy thunder), which Burgess did. Anyway, Burgess is a bold author. It's always fascinating to see what a pro dares to get away with.
For me it is the other way around. Is there an expression for the opposite? But I am pumping out bits of work here and there... All the plans and no engine?
Someone described Tom Waits's voice as "ten miles of dirt road followed by ten miles of no road." And I heard a reference to Peter Schickele (creator of PDQ Bach) that said, "Fortunately for all of us, Peter Schickele was born without a sense of shame."
