We’d sit here and make up great tall tales. – Bobby Briggs
An exaggerated anecdote, or even an outright lie, can be called a tall tale. Where does this phrase come from?
Tall Tales
word history
“None of them is” or “None of them are?”
Which of the following is correct:
It’s ok! None of the coffee is on my shirt!
I called the guys, and none of them is coming.
I called the guys, and none of them are coming.
(Oh man, usually when he asks Which one is correct? they’re all correct and he expects us to amazed. Watch)
Well, you might actually be amazed to find out that they’re all correct!
(*sigh* See?)
But why are they all correct?
Space: The Final Frontier
Space may produce new worlds; whereof so rife,
There went a fame in Heaven that he ere long,
Intended to create, and therein plant,
A generation, whom his choice regard,
Should favor equal to the sons of Heaven:
John Milton, Paradise Lost
Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.
Douglas Adams, The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
I suppose, after talking about Earth and earth yesterday, there’s a certain logic to today having a look at the word space. Like earth, it’s got two very different levels of meaning, which are still quite similar.
Coat of Arms (Featuring Neither a Coat nor Arms)
Today, you can get an idea of how my “creative” process works. On Saturday morning I was going for a run around the university here, NUI Galway. In order to ensure I met my modest distance target, I went down a little-used path, behind the old quadrangle.
The Write Stuff
If you don’t know what to write, they say, just write. Don’t worry about what to write, just keep going. Of course, this isn’t really necessary when you’re writing for a blog. I could just not post anything. I’ve no problem taking a day off now and then. Only, at the moment, I’ve got a bit of an itch to write something. So I’m just going to write for a little bit and see where it takes me.
Why don’t we usually Pronounce the Letter B after an M?
Good question, I’m very glad you asked. There are about ten words in English that end in –mb, but have a silent B. Off the top of my head, I can think of:
- Bomb
- Thumb
- Lamb
- Plumb
- Limb
- Tomb
- Womb
- Climb
- Dumb
- Jamb
- Comb
- Crumb
As you can see, it’s a fairly common phenomenon, but what’s the story behind it?
The Dog Days of Summer
Look at Daisy up there, simply enjoying the warmth of the sun, as only a dog really can. What a life of simple joys a dog lives, one we can all be envious of. Seeing her like that yesterday made me think of the phrase the dog days of summer. A lot of people assume that it refers to the hottest period of the summer, in which dogs are too tired to do anything else but lie in the afternoon heat. I can see the logic in that, but as I’d never looked into the origin of the phrase, I thought now was as good a time as any to do so.
English-Language Thoughts 