Dive in, splash around, skim and dip and spout about the latest quotations, metaphors, words and, of course, triologisms. You’ll feel better for it!

A quote to note

Drawing on thousands of sparkling, moving and inspiring quotations amassed during decades of attentive reading. To delight your mind and spirit and improve your presentations beyond belief.

Pushing the boundaries

Pushing the boundaries

Listening time: under 4 minutes. Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal, puts our relatively short-termist parochialism in stark contrast to that of our...

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Canine correspondence

Canine correspondence

The 19th century Portuguese writer, Eça de Queiros, recounts how his dog left canine correspondence on his desk, to be delivered to his cat.  A few...

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On finding a wife

On finding a wife

A tender description by the 19th century Portuguese writer, Eça de Queiros, of meeting the woman he would marry. So there I was reflecting on my...

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Like the flick of a switch

Like the flick of a switch

Writing in the early days of the consumerist age, Calvino describes the daily switch-flick as those producing goods by day go out to consume or...

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Metaphorically speaking

More marvelous metaphors on Mondays … Monday, metaphor day.

Like Monday morning

Like Monday morning

What adjective might you liken to Monday morning? Something real, cool, and solid lies before you; something unromantic as Monday morning, when all...

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Thoughts like …

Thoughts like …

A sorrowful image of a tired soul, feeling isolated. As her stray ideas returned slowly, each folding its weak wings on the mind's sad shore, like...

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As bland as …

As bland as …

Bronte packs a threesome of metaphors into her description of Mr. Sympson, starting with his continuing blandness, then turning to his pin-sitting...

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As sweet as …

As sweet as …

A tasty alternative to the standard simile 'as sweet as pie' or 'as sweet as honey'. Feel free to use this sunny image, here describing a sweetened...

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Triologisms

Bringing you pithy, evocative imagery in the form of three-legged microcosms of meaning. Updated on Tuesdays … Tuesday, triologism day!  You’ll never see this day of the week in the same way again.

Brightly-smiling day

Brightly-smiling day

A low profile, quiet existence, with days and seasons following each other. I, for the most part, have spent my time peacefully in woods and fields,...

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Bright-winged insects

Bright-winged insects

The Norse god of clouds and sunshine sprinkles flowers and insects wherever he goes. Flowers sprang up under his footsteps, and bright-winged...

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Bright-browed Aesir

Bright-browed Aesir

These upper echelon Norse gods have all the grace of Greek gods, and seem more heroic.  This was a surprise to me as the little exposure I had to...

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Orange-sweet air

Orange-sweet air

What an enticing image! I surmise that you are now basking in the sun-pure, orange-sweet air of California. Does California still bask in such air? ...

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Lustre-coloured damsels

Lustre-coloured damsels

This seems to refer to damselflies, and I liked the idea of 'lustre-coloured' as lustre is a quality of light more than colour.  I tried to capture...

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Sad-coloured weather

Sad-coloured weather

What colour is sadness?  As it's referring to weather, I assume grey, but sometimes grey cloud cover can be a reprieve from dazzling heat and sun,...

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Words

Sharing words that sparkle, appeal, intrigue or otherwise grab me, including in other languages. And adoring alliteration, words are added on Wednesdays… Wednesday, word day. See you back here then.

A deceit, a descent and a parliament

A deceit, a descent and a parliament

As you may know, I have a soft spot for imaginative collective nouns, and although I'd come across 'parliament' for owls, and love the whooshing...

Lauzengier

Lauzengier

Lauzengier (also 'lauzenger') appears in the songs of French troubadours.  An old Occitan word but surely one which it may be timely to pluck from...

Gulch it down

Gulch it down

Mervyn Peake uses Rabelaisian vocabulary to describe the gargantuan appetites and appearance of Swelter, the castle cook in his Gormenghast trilogy....

Mummarella

Mummarella

You would know the 'true' octopus if you saw it, wouldn't you? Reading a book about Mediterranean seafood, Luiz learned that according to an...

Ullage of sunflower

Ullage of sunflower

Something about this word that you can roll around the mouth like a good swig of wine or cognac, the removal of which would result in its ullage in...

Cragfast

Cragfast

Stuck?  In a tight corner?  No going forward ... or back?  Call yourself Cragfast. A sheep cornered on a crag, to starve in the absence of rescue....

I find it moving that no literary text is utterly original, no literary text is completely unique, that it stems from previous texts, built on quotations and misquotations, on the vocabularies fashioned by others and transformed through imagination and use.  Writers must find consolation in the fact that there is no very first story and no last one.  Our literature reaches further back than the beginnings of our memory permits us, and further into the future than our imagination allows us to conceive, but that must be the only barrier.  

Source: Alberto Manguel, The City of Words, CBC Massey Lecture Series (Toronto: Anansi Press, 2007), p. 139

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