Number 36
I learn from the TV that more killings in the Middle East threaten to "derail the roadmap." In PO 24, I quoted this from TV: "The roadmap for peace may be hopelessly lost on a back road." This very simple metaphor seems to trip up journalists all the time, who are free-associating rather than thinking, as their image of a map floats around in the same brain puddle as roads and wheels. OK, maybe someone could lose a map when it flies out the car window on the back road. But roadmaps do not run on rails, or even roads. They don't have wheels. Let's come up with better extensions of the roadmap metaphor, shall we:
I could go on indefinitely. Why don't we just try folding the roadmap, putting it neatly back into the glove compartment, and maybe asking directions (though the locals are known to give fake directions to tourists).
Enormity comes from the same root as "enormous" ~ out of/from (ex/e) the norm, thus enormity suggests the evils of being out of bounds, and should be reserved for that, e.g. "the enormity of the crime." Since it has meant this for so long, avoid using it to mean the quality of being enormous. "Enormity" has included that meaning, but because its primary meaning to many people now is something like heinousness, don't put that idea in your listeners' or readers' heads if you don't mean that. "Close" isn't good enough, as the following story illustrates:
A man whose first language was not English was having lunch with an American business acquaintance, who politely inquired about his family: "Do you have any children?" "Alas, no," the first man replied. "My wife is . . . unbearable." Noting his companion's raised eyebrows, he tried again: That is, my wife is inconceivable." Seeing a still more startled expression, he finally said, "I mean, my wife is impregnable!"
"Seduce women like me" is the subject line of a spam e-mail that I didn't open to learn the details, but "seduce" is undoubtedly the wrong word here. It doesn't mean merely to have sex; it means to lead astray, or aside, and as we know, has usually been applied to sexual temptations, but of course you have to have some scruples to begin with in order to be seduced out of them, and of course you can't "seduce" someone whose business it is to lead you astray. It creates an affecting scenario, though ~ picture the spamee, a man/customer who dreams of becoming a dashing Casanova ~ it brings tears to my eyes.
Students and teachers, writers and editors may find this prayer by Saint Thomas Aquinas helpful in those moments of blockage or block-headedness:
Give me a sharp sense of understanding, a retentive memory, and the ability to grasp things correctly and fundamentally. Grant me the talent of being exact in my explanations, and the ability to express myself with thoroughness and charm. Point out the beginning, direct the progress, help in the completion.
Copyright Rhonda Keith 2003. Parvum Opus or part of it may be reproduced only with permission, but it is permissible to forward the entire newsletter as long as the copyright remains.
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