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Sunday, 9 October 2011

Hugh & Laurie: "Suitable Poetry"





The Last Word In Poetry..?

A lovely bit of Hugh and Laurie, made even better by the fact that you can see they're on the point of losing it a few times, with smirks concealed by nose rubs and suchlike. Enjoy.
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As a bit of a poet myself (with even more here), I can only take great delight in this fun-poking bit of tomfoolery.

The genius of this pair always pleases me. It didn't always work, but when it did, it was magic.

DON'T FORGET TO COMMENT!
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Hotch Potch English: The SNAIL ~ 'Hugh & Laurie: "Suitable Poetry"'
Created & written by Sab Will
Copyright 2011 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English ~ The Unique English Language Website
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Wednesday, 28 September 2011

Holy Cow, Vatman!



Holy Cow, Vatman

I'm not at all political really, but this one tickled my fancy from a few years back. Still pretty relevant today too, by the looks of it...

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Bureaucracy (European)
You have two cows. Brussels tells you how to milk them and pays you not to milk them. Then Brussels kills one, milks the other, throws away the milk and makes you fill out a form to declare your missing cows.

Capitalism (Universal)
You have two cows and big ambitions. You sell one of your cows and buy a bull.

Capitalism (of Hong Kong)
You have two cows under a leasing plan. You sell 3 to a company evaluated by financial places, using lettres de créances opened by your brother in a bank. Simultaneously you proceed with an exchange of participations and a public offer. You get 4 cows with a tax reduction for 5. Then you kill 2 of them because the cowhome direction (feng shui) is bad. The currency crashes and you create a global crisis.

Communism (Orthodox)
You have two cows. Your neighbours help you to look after them and you share the milk with them.

Communism (Russian)
You have two cows. You must feed and milk them but the government takes all the milk.

Democracy (Pure)
You have two cows. Your neighbours decide who will take the milk.

Democracy (Representative)
You have two cows. Your neighbours nominate someone to decide who will take the milk.

Democracy (American)
The government promises to give you two cows if you vote for them. Just after being elected, the president is under an impeachment procedure for flirting with the milk maid. The press calls the scandal Cowgate and wants to make the Head of state resign.

Democracy (British)
You have two cows. You feed them with sheep brains and they become mad. The government does nothing.

Democracy (of Singapore)
You have two cows. The government charges you with keeping cows in your apartment.

Dictatorship
You have two cows. The government takes your cows and puts you in front of the firing squad.

Green
You have two cows. The government forbids you to milk them.

Militarism
You have two cows. The government enlists you in the army, confiscates your cows and feeds you on their milk.

Politically correct
You have a relationship (the concept of property is much too close to a phallocentric past) with two bovines of a non-specific breed, sex and weight (despite 3 Weight Watchers diets).

35 hours
You have two cows. One eats in a private field, the other in a public field. The government orders you to make them work a 35 hour week. They will produce less milk and still eat the same. You think you can solve the problem. Martine Aubry explains that you have to be better organised and gives you a bale of hay.

35 hours (elsewhere)
You have two cows. One eats in a private field, the other in a public one. The first wonders how to produce in 35 hours what she does in 42. The second wonders how to produce in 35 hours what she does in 32.

DON'T FORGET TO COMMENT!
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Hotch Potch English: The SNAIL ~ 'Holy Cow, Vatman!'
Created & written by Sab Will
Copyright 2011 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English ~ The Unique English Language Website
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Saturday, 4 June 2011

Sab's Fab Quirky Language Quiz No.1


Fun Language Quiz No.1

Hi everyone! I just realised that I could still access an old OLD site of mine I started back in 1997ish which I found lurking in the backwaters of the net, not accessible by the normal means.

And what's more, I realised that there is a ton of fun language stuff on there, including... some wonderfully quirky language quizzes, so I'm going to republish them here for everyone's delectation and delight!

They're short, fascinating and I'll give you the answers once a few of you have had a go - OK? So here we go with No.1, and don't forget to comment!

Sab's Fab Quirky Language Quiz No.1

1) Name ten everyday parts of the body with 3 letters - no slang or vulgarity please!

2) Translate this traditional French verse into English:
Un petit d'un petit
S'étonne aux Halles;
Un petit d'un petit
Ah! Degrés falles.
3) Name the origins of these coleopterous food references:

   a) Cool cherry cream and a nice apple tart
   b) Tangerine trees and marmalade skies
   c) Semolina pilchard

4) What is found between a 'hanging-post' and a 'banging-post'?

More language fun coming soon! I'm always keen to read and pass on great language-related pieces, so do send them in and I'll give you whatever namecheck and link you like. Thanks for visiting, and...

DON'T FORGET TO COMMENT!
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Hotch Potch English: The SNAIL ~ 'Sab's Quirky Language Quiz No.1'
Created & written by Sab Will
Copyright 2011 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English ~ The Unique English Language Website
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Sunday, 7 November 2010

Totally Credible! Believable. UNWOW!

Definitely shevelled

Ibcnreidle But Ture...

Thanks to Jamie, from the USA, for this impressive story, possibly from an old issue of the New Yorker magazine by someone called Jack Winter. Still just feeling trigued? Maybe this will change your mind...

How I Met My Wife

It had been a rough day, so when I walked into the party I was very chalant, despite my efforts to appear gruntled and consolate. I was furling my wieldy umbrella for the coat check when I saw her standing alone in a corner. She was a descript person, a woman in a state of total array. Her hair was kempt, her clothing shevelled, and she moved in a gainly way.

I wanted desperately to meet her, but I knew I'd have to make bones about it since I was travelling cognito. Beknownst to me, the hostess, whom I could see both hide and hair of, was very proper, so it would be skin off my nose if anything bad happened. And even though I had only swerving loyalty to her, my manners couldn't be peccable. Only toward and heard-of behavior would do.

Fortunately, the embarrassment that my maculate appearance might cause was evitable. There were two ways about it, but the chances that someone as flappable as I would be ept enough to become persona grata or a sung hero were slim. I was, after all, something to sneeze at, someone you could easily hold a candle to, someone who usually aroused bridled passion.

So I decided not to risk it. But then, all at once, for some apparent reason, she looked in my direction and smiled in a way that I could make heads or tails of.

I was plussed. It was concerting to see that she was communicado, and it nerved me that she was interested in a pareil like me, sight seen. Normally, I had a domitable spirit, but, being corrigible, I felt capacitated--as if this were something I was great shakes at--and forgot that I had succeeded in situations like this only a told number of times. So, after a terminable delay, I acted with mitigated gall and made my way through the ruly crowd with strong givings.

Maculate in the extreme

Nevertheless, since this was all new hat to me and I had no time to prepare a promptu speech, I was petuous. Wanting to make only called-for remarks, I started talking about the hors d'oeuvres, trying to abuse her of the notion that I was sipid, and perhaps even bunk a few myths about myself.

She responded well, and I was mayed that she considered me a savory character who was up to some good. She told me who she was. "What a perfect nomer," I said, advertently. The conversation became more and more choate, and we spoke at length to much avail. But I was defatigable, so I had to leave at a godly hour. I asked if she wanted to come with me. To my delight, she was committal.

We left the party together and have been together ever since. I have given her my love, and she has requited it.

More language fun coming soon! I'm always keen to read and pass on great language-related pieces, so do send them in and I'll give you whatever namecheck and link you like. Thanks for visiting, and...

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Hotch Potch English: The SNAIL ~ 'Totally Credible! Believable. UNWOW!'
Created & written by Sab Will
Copyright 2010 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English ~ The Unique English Language Website
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Tuesday, 26 October 2010

Wluod You Bieelve It?


Ibcnreidle But Ture...

From regular reader Jamie, from the USA, comes this fun little phenomenon: no explanation needed - it's all in the text. But is there any possibility you can actually understand the gobbledygook below? Check it out: you'll probably be surprised...

"I cnduo't bvleiee taht I culod aulaclty uesdtannrd waht I was rdnaieg. Unisg the icndeblire pweor of the hmuan mnid, aocdcrnig to rseecrah at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mttaer in waht oderr the lterets in a wrod are, the olny irpoamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rhgit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whoutit a pboerlm. Tihs is bucseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey ltteer by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Aaznmig, huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghhuot slelinpg was ipmorantt!"


So how aubot taht?! Tnakhs Jimae, and keep snenidg in yuor criibuttoonns - tre'hye vrey wlemoce :-)

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Hotch Potch English: The SNAIL ~ 'Wluod You Bieelve It?'
Created & written by Sab Will
Copyright 2010 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English ~ The Unique English Language Website
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Wednesday, 23 June 2010

Big Noses Run In My Family


When in need of inspiration...

...recycle the classics! Here's one of those many wonderful fun-pokes at the good old English language - enjoy... and wonder.

Big Noses Run In My Family

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you can fill out a form by filling it in and in which an alarm clock goes off by going on.

In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship?

Have noses that run and feet that smell? Park on driveways and drive on parkways?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and wise guy are opposites? How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few are alike? How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell another?

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race (which, of course, isn't a race at all).

That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this column, I end it!

~ Author Unknown

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Hotch Potch English: The SNAIL ~ 'Big Noses Run In My Family'
Created & written by Sab Will
Copyright 2010 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English ~ The Unique English Language Website
More creative Sab: Paris Set Me Free
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Thursday, 10 June 2010

The Rain Peas Mainly On The Plain


Some of the sweetest poems...

...can be some of the shortest, simplest and most - dare I say it - poignant.

Here's an example of genuinely one of the first poems I every remember hearing, and remembering...



Not an earth-moving opus, or epoch-defining moment, I concede, but funny and true to my young virgin poetic brain.

Another which really grabbed my with its sheer cleverness was this one.


It's amazing how when young people discover works that are genuinely clever and funny from before their time they can't help feeling somewhat envious and awed and proud to be experiencing them and realising that people liked having an intellectual laugh even as long ago as when our parents were young.

I wonder if my kids will ever be thinking that if they ever discover some of the things that tickled me, a few years from now.

~ YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE THESE PREVIOUS SNAIL POSTS ~

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Hotch Potch English: The SNAIL ~ 'The Rain Peas Mainly On The Plain'
Created & written by Sab Will
Copyright 2010 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English ~ The Unique English Language Website
More creative Sab: Paris Set Me Free
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