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#120152 01/17/04 08:38 PM
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Here's a dandy new trope from O.Henry. I'm amazed that
I could remember the name of the device:

"Gabriel had played his trump; and those of us who could not follow suit were arraigned for examination. "


#120153 01/17/04 09:11 PM
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It's probably in my top-ten list (which changes every day, because I, like Dr Bill, have my senior moments).

Mine changes daily, too, but because I can't stand to play favorites and leave some deserving word out of the list.

Heliotrope -- isn't that just beautiful?

And how do you feel about metempsychosis?



#120154 01/17/04 10:04 PM
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I am happily reconciled to the fact that there is no
evidence for existence of souls. I have no desire to
find myself condemned to spend millions of years in any
form of protracted existence. I'm not far from the exit.


#120155 01/18/04 12:17 AM
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O.Henry does it again! Once more, I think this is a form of
trope: "pace"( = Latin for peace) used to remind us of "peace" which would be expected in the original cliché.

"the belief that in occupying the highest seat in a Rubberneck auto they were travelling the pace that passes all understanding.



#120156 01/18/04 12:22 AM
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Me, too. I said it was a nice word. As Santayana supposedly said of religion: it's beautiful, just don't ask it to be true. In Spanish, natch.


#120157 01/19/04 11:43 AM
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jheem, pardon my dull wit this morning, but what's the connection between heliotropes (of any kind, any definition) and metempsychosis?


#120158 01/19/04 01:19 PM
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> the connection

the sound of both words turns him on ;)


#120159 01/19/04 01:35 PM
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Thanks, mav', for the clarification.

Now I get to chew on why metempsychosis as a sound would turn anyone on...


#120160 01/19/04 05:56 PM
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Sorry for the vagary. As Maverick suggest, I just like the sound of metempsychosis. Never though much of the meaning of the word which I know mainly from the discussion of it in Ulysses. I'll try to be less free association from now on.


#120161 01/19/04 06:04 PM
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> less free association

Doncha dare!


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