Best sentence in English for 2008 on ASF

[2020hindsight]

2020... before inserting yet another of your off-topic You Tube videos, and then got lost in links that purportedly supported your position...
.
Rather than enjoy Wayne's words for their worth

hey rob - sorry you didn't enjoy the post #13 with the article on the shortest sentence in the english language ... (this thread is about succinct isn't it?)

PS and the associated youtube of Billly Connolly on the same sentence

and you call me humourless lol.

Billy Connolly analyses the sentence "f..off"

 

[rederob]

Best sentence in English for 2008 on ASF
Not a poem.
Nothing about "succinct".
Not a You Tube video either.

No, I didn't call you "humourless" - ignoramus and moron seem much better fits and I used both these words.

Another favourite:

Diatribe like this has sunken the thread into an argy bargy of nothingness.

 

[2020hindsight]

No, I didn't call you "humourless" - ignoramus and moron seem much better fits and I used both these words.

quite right I didn't call you humourless (then) ...(nor you me)
but I'll go out on a limb now and say that since you joined this thread, we've sure learnt the meaning of "humourless".

Now to work out what "jobsworth" means.

 

[redsmartie]

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Quango

Main Entry: quan·go
Pronunciation: \ˈkwaŋ-ˌgō\
Function: noun
Etymology: quasi-nongovernmental organization
Date: 1973
British : a partly autonomous regulatory agency; especially : one in Britain organized outside the civil service but financed and appointed by the government

------------------------------------------------------------------
Ah, my first post is here!

Take the hyper-linked as your own disgrace.

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

Hello

Garpal,

I have to concede the sentence structure dose actual read differently to my interpretation. However in the context of the whole sentence it would be a little unlikely in the normal course of events that a petty left wing humourless jobsworth would inhabit anything other than a left wing QUANGO.

I agree that this is an assumption on my part but one which I hope you will agree is reasonable considering the whole context of the thread that the sentence in question was posted to.

What I was trying to find out is, is it the what, and not so much the how of what was written that attracted you to it ? I am interested in this not from any political sense but have a semi professional interest in the written word.

Some research I have been doing is showing that people generally have little regard to how well something is written , but rate it more on if they like the message or not. Hard to believe I know but in the text message world maybe not surprising

Regards

Speewha,
I take your point, we all resonate with sentences that confirm our beliefs.

My main reason for liking wayneL's sentence was, to paraphrase Shakespeare

" Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, he was brief. "

And perhaps 2020 should have this quote emblazoned in reverse on his forehead and be made look into a mirror before he is allowed to post.

Sorry 2020 couldn't resist.

gg

 

[Stan 101]

2020 and brief...now that's an oxymoron

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

2020 and brief...now that's an oxymoron

lol

gg

 

[2020hindsight]

2020 and brief...now that's an oxymoron

lol trouble is, if you don't post the detail, there are complaints that claims are unsubstaintiated.

 

[2020hindsight]

Here's one for you then.
Is the Opera House Trust a quango in your opinion?

turns out it is -
predictable I guess - anything to do with the arts is probably left wing

 

[Speewha]

Hello

Garpal

Thanks for your reply.

2020 Hindsight and all contributors not only to this thread but ASF in general it good to see well informed, intelligently argued debate with just a nice touch of Aussie larrikin humour is alive and well ! Keep it up.

Quote;I disagree with what you say but I will defend to death your right to say it?
Voltaire.

Could make an interesting topic on ASF on a future wet weekend.
Regards

 

[noirua]

Boris still has good English; and still remains humourous. Politics is interesting again.

One more boring, autocratic, quango creating, left wing misanthrope to be dispensed with at the polls and the future will then indeed look brighter for this country.

Yes, though in time he'll be reduced to razee, he has a lot of nashgab, and this has not the look of epithalamion and as they clean up their act, they will have the smell of cineol all around them. No sign of capo though they need some fresh air through their eventaile, don't you think?

 

[2020hindsight]

Best sentence in English for 2008 on ASF
Not a poem.
Nothing about "succinct".
Not a You Tube video either.

Rob
1. You say - "nothing about succinct" .... - in Garpal's first post he defines what he considers to be a good sentence - it includes the word "succinct" ..about the 39th word.

I mean, surely a thread's title summarises the topic..
but the first post then gives an abstract of what the thread originator is thinking of?

I mean, you started a thread called "Zimbabwe". Would you call posts on the the climate or animals etc of Zimbabwe on thread?. The great grey green greazy Limpopo all set about with fever trees etc? Or do you look to the first post to see what the originator was thinking of?

Not that we should be confied to the main river without checking out a few tributaries (imo) ride the boundaries etc.

One of the attractions of ASF is the good English that is generally written on the forum.

Here is an example from wayneL on post #655 in the Barack 08 thread. It will be hard to beat. It is succinct with a scattering of latinate, french, old english,....

His commas are well placed .....

2. next topic... punctuation ....
back to post #13 - the kid scored 10% on his exam paper where he simply wrote "f.. off" across the top.

and lol - they said he'd have scored better if he'd added some punctuation like "f.... off !!" - get it? (and even Garpal can't deny it's succinct lol)

3. and believe it or not, that post - and that sentence - even qualified as "prior posting on ASF" - because I posted it elsewhere earlier. So I would argue that was also on thread. (ok perhaps one of them tributaries again )

4. as for "no youtubes either" - sheesh, there goes half the fun of this internet thingo. It would be like an Italian trying to communicate without the use of his hands. "Please don't talk to the bus driver whilst he's driving because he has to take his hands off the wheel to answer" sort of thing.

Without youtubes and poems the world loses all colour for me
Incidentally, I've stuck a poem about Zimbabwe on the poetry thread - just another amateur ditty I scribbled this morning. whatever.

 

[noirua]

Without youtubes and poems the world loses all colour for me

...and without your youtubes and poems the world would lose all colour for most of us.

 

[2020hindsight]

and as for your sentence here noi, lol...

Yes, though in time he'll be reduced to razee, he has a lot of nashgab, and this has not the look of epithalamion and as they clean up their act, they will have the smell of cineol all around them. No sign of capo though they need some fresh air through their eventaile, don't you think?

damned if I know what it means, but it sure sounds impressive lol.
Yet another contender for best sentence. (or two )

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

I found another beaut sentence, this one quite short and to the point.

" And his little lips purse-up as if he has been eating lemons. "

This one is from Judd #35 in the thread Does Rudd inspire confidence in General Chat. Judd's use of l's t's and s's is the closest I've seen to poetry ( sorry 2020hindsight ) in a long time on ASF.

It describes the little pissant so economically and is such a good English sentence coming out of the blue in a well set paragraph.

Judd is not the best speller but do not show your disdain because of this.

Re: Does Rudd inspire confidence?
I agree they should have an ALP candidate. It almost smacks of distain for the voters in the electorates.

An no Mr Rudd does not inspire confidence in me. He comes across as preaching. And his little lips purse-up as if he has been eating lemons. All he would need is a bit of rouge on his cheeks and he be perfect for a bit part in Blackadder III

No I didn't vote Liberal.
Judd

gg

 

[wayneL]

I found another beaut sentence, this one quite short and to the point.

" And his little lips purse-up as if he has been eating lemons. "

This one is from Judd #35 in the thread Does Rudd inspire confidence in General Chat. Judd's use of l's t's and s's is the closest I've seen to poetry ( sorry 2020hindsight ) in a long time on ASF.

It describes the little pissant so economically and is such a good English sentence coming out of the blue in a well set paragraph.

Judd is not the best speller but do not show your disdain because of this.

Re: Does Rudd inspire confidence?
I agree they should have an ALP candidate. It almost smacks of distain for the voters in the electorates.

An no Mr Rudd does not inspire confidence in me. He comes across as preaching. And his little lips purse-up as if he has been eating lemons. All he would need is a bit of rouge on his cheeks and he be perfect for a bit part in Blackadder III

No I didn't vote Liberal.
Judd

gg

GG

It's funny how folks are usually at their most eloquent when speaking of politicians and hypocrites, usually one in the same.

 

[Julia]

Sometimes a passage from a novel can, in a few carefully chosen words, perfectly sum up a situation we too often take for granted.
The following is from a book I'm currently reading and it's the last sentence that I like so much:

It was the idea of the three of us under one roof, living unexceptional routines and bound to one another by ties of unthinking affection.

Such ordinariness struck me as the very acme of human achievement.

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

GG

It's funny how folks are usually at their most eloquent when speaking of politicians and hypocrites, usually one in the same.

Sometimes a passage from a novel can, in a few carefully chosen words, perfectly sum up a situation we too often take for granted.
The following is from a book I'm currently reading and it's the last sentence that I like so much:

I agree wayneL that politics usually brings out the best. However I've had a look through the left wing posters and cannot find a suitable sentence to post. I would have thought that the left with such luminaries as George Bernard Shaw in the past could have come up with a good English sentence in ASF. I'll keep on trawling. Their spleen unfortunately, just as deeply held as the Tories, seems to be expressed in polysyllabic stock answers grabbed from Labor and Green party Dogma and Propaganda, much as one would find if one googled the preceding four large case words.

I recognise that quote Julia as being familiar , where is it from?

gg

 

[Julia]

Hello GG,

It's from "Trauma" by Patrick McGrath.

 

[2020hindsight]

gg, you were quoting judd back there ....

Re: Does Rudd inspire confidence? ....

An no Mr Rudd does not inspire confidence in me. He comes across as preaching. And his little lips purse-up as if he has been eating lemons. All he would need is a bit of rouge on his cheeks and he be perfect for a bit part in Blackadder III

lol - Some powerful imagery there -
and Obviously appealing to your political compass as much as (??) your appreciation of the english language

This one is pretty good too (imo) - by ghotib (Pilgrims thread) - appeals to my religious compass as well.

Did you see the pictures of yesterdays big event. 400 old men swaying up a ramp in funny hats and long dresses all dripping with bling... all they needed was a few high kicks and some false eyelashes and it would have been mardi gras all over again.