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Originally posted by PalynkaYou seem confused. Perhaps a story would help. My neighbor at my prior home had the bad habit of leaving his BBQ grill out in the rain near the fence next to my yard. It eventually rusted and began to collapse in on itself into a rusty pile of enameled metal. He had a cat who liked to tease my slow-footed dog; entering my yard, getting the dog to chase him, only to escape at the last second through the slats in the wooden fence. Over the years, the fence also decayed and got soft. So, one day, the dog got unusually overwrought at something the cat must have said to him and gave chase more vigorously than he normally did. As the cat slipped through the fence, the dog crashed his head into the gap, broke through and closed his jaws on what he could reach inside my neighbor's yard. It wasn't the cat. It was a mouthful of rusty BBQ grill. I took the dog to the vet, he did the best he could, but it was no use. The vet came out looking appropriately grim and told me the bad news: "I'm very sorry, but your dog strained at a cat and swallowed enamel."
So it's not swine flu? And I'm getting lost. Is this about Rumsfeld and Tamiflu, Baxter or a linear combination of both?
I love to play Six Degrees of Separation. I'm sure we can get to Rothschild while we're at it. Isn't Rumsfeld at Bildeberg, who want to exterminate most of the world's population? Why isn't uzless at this like a rabid dog?
Originally posted by ScriabinThis looks like a joke, but I don't get the punchline.
You seem confused. Perhaps a story would help. My neighbor at my prior home had the bad habit of leaving his BBQ grill out in the rain near the fence next to my yard. It eventually rusted and began to collapse in on itself into a rusty pile of enameled metal. He had a cat who liked to tease my slow-footed dog; entering my yard, getting the dog to chase hi ...[text shortened]... ld me the bad news: "I'm very sorry, but your dog strained at a cat and swallowed enamel."
Originally posted by ScriabinBut you forget that the cat may not even have been there.
You seem confused. Perhaps a story would help. My neighbor at my prior home had the bad habit of leaving his BBQ grill out in the rain near the fence next to my yard. It eventually rusted and began to collapse in on itself into a rusty pile of enameled metal. He had a cat who liked to tease my slow-footed dog; entering my yard, getting the dog to chase hi ...[text shortened]... ld me the bad news: "I'm very sorry, but your dog strained at a cat and swallowed enamel."
Originally posted by ScriabinIntimate inside spiritual knowledge, enough to make light puny witticisms that are likely to only be appreciated by those with the knowledge of the cloth!........................Interesting....!
Matthew 23:24 (King James)
"Ye blind guides, that strain at a gnat and swallow a camel!
To strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel signifies much solicitude about little things, and none about greater.
Originally posted by kmax87btw :- puny as in, a play on words, as in a pun, not as could be misconstrued as being small or insignificant or inconsequential.
Intimate inside spiritual knowledge, enough to make light puny witticisms that are likely to only be appreciated by those with the knowledge of the cloth!........................Interesting....!
Originally posted by kmax87May I offer a rejoinder? In both the Bible and in Shakespeare, humor often consists of puns. the Bible is not generally regarded as a humorous work -- not by Christians anyway -- but the NT contains one huge joke in it, and that joke is a pun. I refer of course to the famous verse: " Thou art Peter, and on this rock I shall build my church." While this is not a very good pun, it is the best the Bible can offer. In the original language the word for 'Peter' meant also a rock or stone -- c.f. the Latin 'petrus' or the French 'Pierre'. Can anyone doubt that the history of Christianity and the western world would have been very different if Peter's name had been 'Sandy'?
btw :- puny as in, a play on words, as in a pun, not as could be misconstrued as being small or insignificant or inconsequential.
Originally posted by kmax87May also say that puns occur throughout the highest works of English literature, from stray lines like " tread softly, for ye tread on hallowed ground" to the later works of James Joyce which consist almost entirely of puns and wordplay. I might also quote, without looking in any particular direction, the following passage from Fowler's 'Modern English Usage':--
btw :- puny as in, a play on words, as in a pun, not as could be misconstrued as being small or insignificant or inconsequential.
"The assumption that puns are per se contemptible ... is a sign at once of sheepish docility and a desire to seem superior. Puns are good, bad, or indifferent, and only those who lacks the wit to make them are unaware of the fact. "
Originally posted by kmax87A recent attack on the pun:
btw :- puny as in, a play on words, as in a pun, not as could be misconstrued as being small or insignificant or inconsequential.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/28/opinion/28Tartakovsky.html?_r=1, NY Times column by Joseph Tartakovsky.
"Puns are the feeblest species of humor because they are ephemeral: whatever comic force they possess never outlasts the split second it takes to resolve the semantic confusion."-- Tartakovsky
So what? The average human male orgasm lasts for 4 seconds, yet that hasn't stopped the practice of sexual intercourse to lag not far behind in popularity than television surfing. And punning, like orgasms from the fairer sex, can be serial before they're toast.
"the least intolerable puns are those that avoid the pun’s essential puerility."--Tartakovsky.
Au contraire, Mr T. Puerility, like groan-inducement, is often the point. Puerility is a useful strategy when a conversation becomes pompous and somber. Again, Shakespeare's Malvolio, here, is a good example. Would you rather have a beer with that Twelfth Night drudge, or with any of hundreds of counter-forces in S's works?
"Punning, it seems, like every non-deadly sin, is easier to excuse than to resist."--Tartakovsky.
It's irresistable, naturally so. Let yourself go, tart tongue. Sprinkle on a pun, life is sweet.