In the June 13th One Big Happy, Ruthie’s mother says seller, but Ruthie hears cellar:
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Ruthie knows about cellars ‘basements’ (or ‘underground storage rooms’), but apparently not about bestsellers.
Archive for July, 2018
seller / cellar
July 10, 2018What did the Cretan bull say to Hercules when the hero tamed him?
July 10, 2018μ μ
(but the bull was real butch about it, and anyway that’s the Greek Way)
Meanwhile, the Greek letter mu is wide open for cow cartoons, like this recent one (from February 1st) by Scott Hilburn, passed on to me by Facebook friends:
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Swiss cheese isn’t Swiss
July 10, 2018(And Swiss steak isn’t either, but that’s a topic for another posting.)
(#1) A wedge of American Swiss
But then the expression Swiss cheese is ambiguous. NOAD recognizes this, but not in the way you were probably expecting:
How to use the F-word
July 8, 2018Yesterday’s Doonesbury:
Absurdly poor advice, but Trudeau knew that. (To start with, speech doesn’t have commas in it; commas are visual marks.) Still, lots of people think that using fuck is just a matter of plugging it in whenever the mood strikes you, while in fact in addition to its use as a copulatory verb (itself a topic of some complexity), fuck functions as a little grammatical word, with a syntax as complex as other little grammatical words — so, for, too, etc. Plus, of course, all sorts of sociocultural conditions on when it’s appropriate.
Word division days
July 8, 2018A Twitter-based cartoon on the Analytical Gramar/Grammar Planet Facebook page:
(#1) FAT ALBERT vs. FATAL BERT
No spaces in hashtags, hence the orthographic ambiguity.
Adam atom
July 8, 2018Today’s Bizarro plays on Adam vs. atom and on the ambiguity of bomb:
(If you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Dan Piraro says there are 11 in this strip — see this Page.)
The sentence Adam bombs, with intransitive bomb ‘fail miserably’ — hey, it’s a really tough audience — in the pres. 3sg. vs. the (plural) compound N atom bombs.
Following instructions
July 7, 2018The instruction goes COVER ME or COVER YOURSELF. What are you supposed to do? Well, the verb cover, um, covers a lot of possibilities, so there’s plenty of room for play, amply illustrated in cartoons and other forms of visual/verbal play. Especially common are plays on COVER ME intended as having what I’ll call “gunfire cover” but understood as having some other sense, in particular what I’ll call “(general) placement cover“; and plays on COVER YOURSELF intended as having what I’ll call “corporal-modesty cover” (cover your nakedness) but understood as having (general) placement cover.
Food and sex for the 4th
July 6, 2018Running a bit late, but here are four (US) Independence Day items: two pieces of watermelon news (just food); phallic hot dogs (food and sex); and a go-to guy for holiday gay porn (just sex). The last two items involve men’s bodies and mansex discussed in street language, so aren’t suitable for everyone.
The multi-speed rainbow buttlight penguin (in blue)
July 5, 2018Resting indoors:
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Found by Elizabeth (Daingerfield Zwicky) and Opal (Armstrong Zwicky) at the Monterey Aquarium on the 4th: a Flashing Friend (“Press Me for Colorful Flashing Lights”). Press its rubber butt, and it flashes rainbow colors, in two speeds. A wonderful, remarkable little object.
czl.ch
July 5, 2018Cool. That’s the URL for (francophone) Swiss artist Christine Zwicky-Lehmann’s website; it’s as if I had managed to get amz.us. In any case, she came to me via Google Alerts, alerting me to one of her exhibitions back in 2013. From that website:
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(So much to find in French âme (very roughly) ‘soul’.)
Mostly watercolors, but also acrylics.