I thought this deserved a post of its own!

For those who need some background information, Abrams’s A Glossary of Literary Terms (7th ed.) says that a “mixed metaphor conjoins two or more obviously diverse metaphorical vehicles. When used inadvertently, without sensitivity to the possible incongruity of the vehicles, the effect can be ludicrous” (98; author’s emphasis).

And that concludes our Sensitivity to the Nuances in Language lessons for today. Lim Swee Say’s sweesayisms, unfortunately, are in a class of their own, and will have to be discussed another day.

Join me in exploring our cetacean heritage.

BONUS: this joke.

…are we now, Mr Stark?

(For the more illiterate among us, this is a scene from Ian McKellen’s Richard III where Robert Downey Jr plays Lord Rivers.)

I think Lionel de Souza needs extra tutoring with regard to how to write an expository argument:

Other than being used for trysts and immoral purposes, rooms at budget hotels are also used by gambling syndicates to operate illegal “casinos”, drug addicts to abuse drugs, fugitives of the law who dare not return home for fear of being arrested, etc.

– Lionel de Souza, TODAY, Why budget hotels must be reined in

If this were an essay he submitted to me for grading, my comments would be as follows:

Lionel, where is your evidence? What makes you an authority on budget hotels?

I know you are a retired cop, but I don’t think you’d be privy to what goes on in budget hotels in this day and age – unless you hang out at budget hotels yourself.

Even if that were the case, citing personal experience is not always credible when it comes to making expository arguments.

Actually he needs a lot more help with his writing (look at the amount of fallacies in the letter!) but I can’t afford the time.

Besides, people seldom buy the cow if they can get the milk for free. (Though I must clarify that I always make it a point to buy the milk if I get to sample it first and I like what I taste.)

Anyway Lionel, if you do read this, and you like the taste of my milk, my rates are $100/hr - you know my name, look up the number.

At the summit, it was like one big happy family sitting down and playing the popular card game Happy Families.

(via The Online Citizen; Hat-tip to How to Write Badly Well; what ‘flogging a dead horse’ means.)

Student: Teacher, can go toilet?

Me: No.

Student: Huh…

Me: “May I please visit the washroom?”

Student: Okay.

Me: No! You; you!

Student: Oh. (Pause.) Can go toilet?

I personally heard incredible things about Laremy Lee, which explains why I was upset.

– hikaru, Own Time Own Target by W!ld Rice.

When I read that line, I was tickled pink. I seriously want to meet whoever it is who has been spreading such “incredible things”, because I want to hire her/him to be my publicist. I’m serious. This woman or man is really good at viral marketing.

In other news, this is my favourite line from the whole post:

But even I myself is guilty of such writings many times…

Tee hee hee! Go check it out at Just Watch Lah.

“Who is Aunty Janki’s son??” I asked.

“The… Kamal,” she said.

“Who’s Kamal???”

Turns out ‘Kamal’ was none other than Kishore Mahbubani, who had come to watch OTOT with his missus, because both their sons were in NS and Mrs M felt that the Ms had to watch OTOT to better understand NS and what their sons were going through.

That’s what I gathered from the Sindhi side of my family who were huddled around me, as they’d also come to watch OTOT as well. Just then, ‘Kamal’ walked by and we talked for a minute or so – I told him that there was going to be “some strong language” in the play; he joked that he was going to leave then.

During the intermission, I joined my family where they were seated, in the middle of the theatre. Coincidentally, Kishore was sitting one row behind us.

He jokingly said that he thought the language wasn’t strong enough. He also added that the French ambassador was around, and was asking what one word in particular meant. No one dared to tell him what it meant in English, but a clever soul told him that the word translated to ‘la chatte’ in French. Nice work, diplomats.