"She was forty and looked it, and she was not an eyestopper in any obvious way, but everything about her, the way she walked, the way she stood, her eyes and mouth and whole face, seemed to be saying, without trying or intending to, that if you happened to be hers, and she yours, life would be full of pleasant and interesting surprises ( Read more... )

"[She] gave him the cherry out of her cocktail..."

From the novella "Man Alive" (1947) by Rex Stout (another Nero Wolfe mystery), the phrasing above is an accusation of adultery.  It took me two pages to figure that out and turn back to this initial statement enlightened.  None of the characters seem to have my comprehension problem.

"When you love something that can love you back..."
    -- Line read off the closed captioning after flipping channels shortly before bed (it was an episode of Men in Trees)

Things that happen when you're in your beautiful, classic, Roget's International Thesauruas that your mother gave you when you were preadolescent: "Paranymph."  Synonym for "companion."  Dictionary says: "a friend going with a bridegroom in his chariot to fetch home the bride; also, the bridesmaid conducting the bride to the bridegroom; also, an ( Read more... )

"Mr. Bush has degraded our government and undermined the rule of law; he has led us into strategic disaster and moral squalor."-- Paul Krugman in his subscription-required New York Times column, quoted by Dan Froomkin in his openly-available Washington Post column

NAB translation: "break the backs of their adversaries"
ABS translation: "crush all their enemies"
Translation encountered tonight at Lent Bible Study final session: "smash the loins"

Vivid!  Different emphasis.  And utterly uncliched in English!

Interesting word of the moment: "yeshurun" (Dt 32:15, 33:5, 33:26)

Richard Reeves's latest column quotes a brisk, blistering editorial point from the Buffalo (N.Y.) News:"The argument made by Bush partisans that limiting the war equates to a lack of support for our troops is similar to the argument made by the drunken brother-in-law that cutting off his liquor supply means you don't love him.  The difference being ( Read more... )

Leonard Pitts's Monday 03/12/07 column is on the death of Captain America, and what it tries to say about the real America.
"For 66 years, Captain America has been the conscience and moral center of the universe he inhabits, the good soldier, the decent American, the one who did the right thing. Now he lies bleeding out on courthouse steps, having ( Read more... )

For years, I've been asking where Faith's "5 by 5" phrase comes from, and for years no one has known.

Today, our new sales representative from a certain vendor said "We're 5 by 5" to someone.  I pounced.  He said that it is a military term meaning "five feet by five feet" for a "perfect square," or generally that "you're right where you're ( Read more... )

"The Police To Be Vastly Smug Around The World This Year"
(I don't know much about Sting's old band except that the main character in Footloose liked them, but I saw this headline listed on Google News, and it really made me laugh.)