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Conference thebay::joyoflex

Title:The Joy of Lex
Notice:A Notes File even your grammar could love
Moderator:THEBAY::SYSTEM
Created:Fri Feb 28 1986
Last Modified:Mon Jun 02 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1192
Total number of notes:42769

991.0. "Fun with Phrases" by SHALOT::ANDERSON (The glass is half empty) Thu Jul 16 1992 07:05

	I'm a phrase collector.  I'm attracted to phrases that usually
	1) have some interesting, obscure meaning, 2) use normal words,
	and 3) sound like they were lifted from poetry.  Here are some
	examples:

	o  proud flesh					kind of scar
	o  absolute ceiling			an airplane's top height
	o  infinite glue				from DOCUMENT
	o  paradoxical sleep				REM sleep
	o  shadow quilting				?
	o  flowering spurge				kind of plant
	o  hoary puccoon				"    "  "
	o  Zucker fatties				?
	o  neon gobies					kind of fish
	o  Area 39				brain area devoted to sex

	Wouldn't these make get great poetry titles, or names of bands?
	Does anyone know what shadow quilting and Zucker fatties are?
	I forget.  Does anybody else have some good ones?

		-- Cliff
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991.1LINGO::KNOWLESCaveat vendorThu Jul 16 1992 07:189
Strictly speaking, `infinite glue' is a gem from the arcane language of TeX -
borrowed by the VAX DOCUMENT wallahs from Donald Knuth (and maybe Knuth
himself borrowed the phrase from some mathematical context, though I doubt it).

Does `absolute zero' qualify? It's what you can't make anything any colder than,
but I'm sure someone could come up with a more obscure definition (involving
Boyle and Kelvin) if obscurity is a sine qua non.

b
991.2SMURF::SMURF::BINDERRem ratam agiteThu Jul 16 1992 07:585
    The definition of absolute zero is the temperature at which all atomic
    activity ceases.  Meaning, of course, that a DP transaction can be
    interrupted...
    
    -dick
991.3Proud flesh *hurts*VMSMKT::KENAHSeeking the Philosopher's StoneThu Jul 16 1992 13:019
    Proud flesh isn't a kind of scar -- It's a protubance of tissue
    without a tendency to heal or scarify.  Sometimes it heals by itself;
    other times it needs to be cauterized.
    
    I've occasionally had proud flesh in conjunction with hangnails;
    it's the little bit of *very* tender tissue that sticks up
    next to the nail.  
    
    					andrew
991.4setsPENUTS::DDESMAISONSThu Jul 16 1992 13:2114
	Cliff,

	I don't know if you'll like this one, but how about
	"almost everywhere"?  It's a mathematical term, having 
	to do with set theory.  Rather obscure, me thinks.

	If you want a definition, I can get you one, as it's not
	available in just any old dictionary.  It's one of those
	that one has to read over a few times, sort of like the 
	definition of "gerundive" for me.  

	Diane

991.5ops, forgot oneSHALOT::ANDERSONThe glass is half emptyThu Jul 16 1992 15:161
			Flowering spurge -- it's a flower
991.6From German?TRUCKS::WINWOODLife has surface noise tooTue Jul 21 1992 11:065
    I believe 'Zucker' is the German for Sugar, hence a fattie
    due to a predeliction for it?
    
    Calvin
    
991.7SHALOT::ANDERSONBut this one goes to 11Wed Jul 22 1992 06:431
	No, he's the guy who discovered it.  Nice try though.
991.8JGODCL::APETERSNasser for Precedent!Mon Aug 24 1992 07:218
    How about...

	Infinite Improbability

    from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (by Douglas Adams).

    Andr� ;^)
991.9VMSMKT::KENAHKeep on keepin' on...Mon Aug 24 1992 07:344
    I recently saw a road sign in New Zealand that I really liked;
    it would probably make a good name for a band, or a CD title:
    
    			Deceptive Bends
991.10See you soon, NZ!VNABRW::OSLANSKY_WLAK�L Z'M�N W-�TH L'KH�L-H�FETSMon Aug 24 1992 08:129
    New Zild, oh yeah ...  I really learned to like road signs like these:
    	
    	CONCEALED	- usually a hidden junction with a secondary road
    	STOCK		- [from "life stock":] expect a herd of sheep ...
    	METAL		- has nothing to do with Hard Rock, it just means
    			  a gravel surface (aka UNSEALED)
    
    Walter "Call Me Kiwi" Oslansky :-)
    
991.11CALS::THACKERAYMon Aug 24 1992 09:1118
    Re .9:
    
    Strange you should say that. There was an album by 10cc named exactly
    that, "Deceptive Bends"!
    
    Ray
    
    PS. It's like that signpost in the north of London "Hatfield and the
    North".
    
    Or for the person who cited Douglas Adams earlier, that member of the
    rock band in the restuarant at the end of the universe, whose name came
    from an estate agent in North London, "Hotblack Desiato". But
    then,Douglas Adams is wonderful at taking names of signs and making
    them work for a living. Read "The meaning of Liff" for a lark.
    
    Hey, that's a hell of a string of interconnections with music as the
    theme!
991.12STARCH::HAGERMANFlames to /dev/nullMon Aug 24 1992 09:211
    "Slippery when wet." -- G. Bush re W. Clinton.
991.13Confidential ShreddingLINGO::KNOWLESSpelling chequers are knot the hole answerFri Sep 11 1992 07:474
I've been walking by this one for years without a second glance, but it's
suddenly struck me as in some way notable - could be an album title too.

b
991.14Foot Odor BabySHALOT::ANDERSONLet my people go!Mon Sep 14 1992 06:522
	The title of one of the clips on America's Funniest Home
	Videos last night.
991.15...and who started calling 'em 'buns', anyway?VALKYR::RUSTMon Sep 14 1992 11:0210
    Dunno if this qualifies, but it certainly caught my attention. There's
    a new exercise video for tightening up the, er, I think it would be the
    gluteus maximus (glutei?). Anyhow, it's got the catchy title, "Buns of
    Steel"... 
    
    Certainly doesn't sound like something _I'd_ want, either for a Really
    Close Friend (no fun to fondle) or for myself (downright painful to sit
    on!).
    
    -b
991.16AUSSIE::WHORLOWBushies do it for FREE!Mon Sep 14 1992 16:209
    G'day,
    
    Driving along, a quick missread and a sticky situation...
    
    CONGEALED DRIVEWAYS seem so hard to turn into,   and as for the
    intrinsic difficulties of dealing with DANCER AHEAD.....
    
    
    derek
991.17Exactly the wrong word...LJSRV2::KALIKOWBrother, can youse paradigm?Mon Dec 05 1994 05:3616
    This morning as I was listening to National Public Radio on my way to
    work, there was a piece about the current controversy surrounding the
    proposal for a new US Postage stamp, part of a 50th-anniversary-
    commemmorative series about WWII.  It features a depiction of the
    mushroom cloud over Hiroshima/Nagasaki with the caption "Atomic bombs
    hasten war's end".  Naturally this has caused a significant flap in
    Japanese-American relations.  According to NPR, one Hiroshima
    anti-nuclear organization, which had been asked by the Smisthonian
    Institution to supply museum exhibit materials on the effects of the
    bombs on the city's inhabitants --  such as scorched school lunchboxes
    and partially-burned school uniforms -- upon hearing news of the
    proposed stamp, became incensed.
    
    
    I nearly drove off the road...
    
991.18Pay for a tax cutNETCAD::ROLKEDisguise the limit.Thu Dec 15 1994 13:021
... National Public Radio and politics provide an endless supply.  -C