Sprezzatura - Wordsmith.org

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#123571 - 02/27/04 04:10 PM Re: easy appearing difficult
tsuwm Carpal Tunnel Registered: 04/03/00 Posts: 10462 Loc: this too shall pass	something may be easy for you, difficult for others, so you sandbag to gull them into competing on your terms.
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#123572 - 02/27/04 06:43 PM Re: Sprezzatura
musick Carpal Tunnel Registered: 12/24/00 Posts: 2658 Loc: Chicago	see also "Red Sox" Hard to believe you got away with that so easily, Max!
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#123573 - 02/27/04 06:49 PM Re: easy appearing difficult
Zed Pooh-Bah Registered: 08/27/02 Posts: 2154 Loc: British Columbia, Canada	How about a new eponym for making the easy look difficult. To Scotty it. "Captain, it'll take at least 6 hours to recombobulate the widget drive!" "You've got 3 hours, Scotty." and he invariably finished in 2 hours and 59 minutes, just before detonation.
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#123574 - 02/27/04 07:10 PM Re: easy appearing difficult
wwh Carpal Tunnel Registered: 01/18/01 Posts: 13858	Dear Zed: I'll see your "Scotty" and raise you one "Spock". Mr. Spock is the epitome of "sprezzatura" - he was never excited, impolite, or angry. A perfect courtier.
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#123575 - 02/27/04 07:12 PM Re: easy appearing difficult
Zed Pooh-Bah Registered: 08/27/02 Posts: 2154 Loc: British Columbia, Canada	But somehow lacking the sence of enjoyment and fizz that sprezzatura has.
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#123576 - 02/27/04 07:23 PM Re: easy appearing difficult
wwh Carpal Tunnel Registered: 01/18/01 Posts: 13858	Dear Zed: you make "sprezzatura" sound like in-expertly opening a bottle of champagne.
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#123577 - 02/28/04 07:07 AM Re: easy appearing difficult
grapho addict Registered: 11/09/03 Posts: 619 Loc: Carpal Tunnel Country	you make "sprezzatura" sound like in-expertly opening a bottle of champagne There is no sprezzatura way to open a bottle of champagne, wwh, unless you use it to christen a ship. The more you struggle with it, the less chance your celebrations will fizzle out. The art of opening a champagne bottle turns conventional wisdom upside down. The more adroitless the effort, the more felicitous the result. You only get one "pop", so you'd better make it good!
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#123578 - 02/28/04 11:06 AM Re: tour-de-force
inselpeter Pooh-Bah Registered: 03/14/01 Posts: 2379 Loc: New York City	This turned up while I was looking around for a word for Faldage: Perhaps it was right to dissemble your love, But -- why did you kick me down stairs? -- J. P. Kemble.
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#123579 - 02/28/04 11:14 AM Re: tour-de-force
grapho addict Registered: 11/09/03 Posts: 619 Loc: Carpal Tunnel Country	I was looking around for a word for Faldage How about "Faldo"? All his male-bonding buds call him "Faldo". I have this on the highest authority ... at least, the highest authority around here. Or perhaps you were looking around for something less familiar ... in which case you might open it up to the board for suggestions. I have forsaken such temptations myself ... as everyone can plainly see.
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#123580 - 02/28/04 11:31 AM Re: tour-de-force
wwh Carpal Tunnel Registered: 01/18/01 Posts: 13858	Just a paternal display of affection: 1"You are old, father William," the young man said, 2 "And your hair has become very white; 3And yet you incessantly stand on your head -- 4 Do you think, at your age, it is right?" 5"In my youth," father William replied to his son, 6 "I feared it would injure the brain; 7But now that I'm perfectly sure I have none, 8 Why, I do it again and again." 9"You are old," said the youth, "as I mentioned before, 10 And have grown most uncommonly fat; 11Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door -- 12 Pray, what is the reason of that?" 13"In my youth," said the sage, as he shook his grey locks, 14 "I kept all my limbs very supple 15By the use of this ointment -- one shilling the box -- 16 Allow me to sell you a couple." 17"You are old," said the youth, "and your jaws are too weak 18 For anything tougher than suet; 19Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak -- 20 Pray, how did you manage to do it?" 21"In my youth," said his father, "I took to the law, 22 And argued each case with my wife; 23And the muscular strength, which it gave to my jaw, 24 Has lasted the rest of my life." 25"You are old," said the youth; one would hardly suppose 26 That your eye was as steady as ever; 27Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose -- 28 What made you so awfully clever?" 29"I have answered three questions, and that is enough," 30 Said his father; "don't give yourself airs! 31Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff? 32 Be off, or I'll kick you down stairs!"
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