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They were often thought the best. Some were quite capable of the effort, but without the consequences.
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Dear Faldage: Vatican sopranos were deprived of posterity at a very early age. I doubt very much that they ever had
a "tilt to the kilt".
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I doubt very much that they ever had a "tilt to the kilt".
Alas, performance at the expense of performance.
To geld the lilt is a crime against posterity. Or at least it should be.
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Google castrati lovers and you'll find some sites that claim that they were sought after by discriminating women.
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Dear Faldage: I had searched, and those were idiots who were
castrated after reaching maturity.The Vatican types were
like the young man from Samoa,Who had one inch, and no more...
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The Vatican types were like the young man from Samoa, who had one inch, and no more...
Let's not put too fine a point on it, wwh.
Let's just call it what it is: mutilation ... a low note in the history of chasing high notes.
Some chords are better lost than severed.
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An antonym to "sprezzatura" from a Sherlock Holmes adventure:
""You remember," said he, "that some little time ago when I read you the passage in one of Poe's sketches in which a close reasoner follows the unspoken thoughts of his companion, you were inclined to treat the matter as a mere tour-de-force of the author. On my remarking that I was constantly in the habit of doing the same thing you expressed incredulity."
A "tour de force" is a master-stroke, a striking display of skill and power.
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That might qualify as making the difficult look difficult. I'm still (the Good Father's noble effort notwithstanding) looking for a word that means making the easy look difficult.
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making the easy look difficult.
complicate?
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I'm still ... looking for a word that means making the easy look difficult
How about "clumsy"?
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Naw. It can be done very adroitly. So far maahey has the lead with 'complicate'.
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Faldage: best I can come up with is "grandstanding", in
baseball, a fielder indulging in histrionics.
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Good'n Dr Bill. It's Dr Bill and maahey neck and neck.
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"Good'n Dr Bill. It's Dr Bill and maahey neck and neck."
Oh, to be 75 again.
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clumsy ... can be done very adroitly
You're thinking of "adroitless", Faldage.
The American Heritage Dictionary lists these synonyms for "adroit":
"Dexterous; skillful; expert; ready; clever; deft; ingenious; cunning; ready-witted"
"Clumsy" isn't among them.
Adroitless of those lexicographers!
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Dear Faldage: after thinking about it, I have to admit
that "grandstanding" could be either way. A fielder could
pretend to have misjudged a ball, and then dramatically
correct and make a spectacular catch. Of course, his coach
would not be amused. In either case.
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Presumably, if he hadn't pretended to misjudge, he would have made an easy catch. Of course, he might have been trying to fool a baserunner into thinking he wouldn't catch it, thus catching him off base for the double play.
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formerly known as etaoin...
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If I understand aright, a good example of this would be the reaction of a contractor, for example, when you ask him to do something: he pulls a face, thinks about it, tells you it's possible but won't be easy, takes his time doing it (even though he knows how to do it and the parts are cheap), then overcharges you and you cheerfully pay him because you're so grateful.
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Ooh, good example. Got a word for it?
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something may be easy for you, difficult for others, so you sandbag to gull them into competing on your terms.
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see also "Red Sox"
Hard to believe you got away with that so easily, Max!
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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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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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But somehow lacking the sence of enjoyment and fizz that sprezzatura has.
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Dear Zed: you make "sprezzatura" sound like in-expertly
opening a bottle of champagne.
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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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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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I was looking around for a word for FaldageHow 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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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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"In my youth," said his father, "I took to the law,
And argued each case with my wife;
And the muscular strength, which it gave to my jaw,
Has lasted the rest of my life."
That was the days before spouses could argue online, wwh.
Nowadays, they just end up with Carpal Tunnel syndrome.
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Dear grapho: Many spouses develop "ratchet jaw" instead.
Only on-line usage I could find for that was:
"Ratchet jaw...CB'er who talks too much "
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"ratchet jaw"
Rachet Jaw commonly induces a condition known as Hatchet Jaw in those who are exposed to it.
Hatchet Jaw can spread from the jaw to the fist very rapidly.
Speaking of "Ratchet Jaws", the other nite I stopped at a bar for a beer.
The guy sitting next to be at the bar started talking to me. I wasn't really into talking with a stranger but he wouldn't let up.
After a while, I simply ignored him. He still wouldn't let up.
Finally, I got up and took a seat far away, too far away to watch the sporting event I was trying to watch on the TV over the bar, but, at least, far away from Ratchet Jaw.
After awhile, I looked up and saw that Ratchet Jaw was still talking and joking with me ... at my empty seat at the bar.
Later, a regular of the bar told me that nobody feels sorry for Ratchet Jaw. He is a hail-fellow-well-met and never gets tired of his own company.
True story.
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a word that means making the easy look difficult This could be one def. of finesse.
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Another name for "tour-de-force" could be "over-kill". I remember reading stories about King Arthur's knights, when
one of them would hit adversary on the helmet with his sword,, and cleave him right down to his crotch.
The opposite of that was the Saracen who had a sword so
sharp that if you dropped a gossamer veil on it, it would
be cut into two pieces just by its weight.
I also remember reading almost two years ago, Osama bin Laden feeling our use of 2,000 lb. bombs on Taliban was
reprehensible. (Actually I suspect those words were put
in his mouth by some journalist.)
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making the easy look difficult
An "easy look" at a scantily clad beauty can get a man into a lot of difficulties ... if he happens to be with his lady.
It's easier to get away with a furtive look than an easy look, but it isn't quite as rewarding.
In short, you don't have to make "the easy look difficult". It already is.
Ask any man who is not "your" man. He will tell you. There is nothing "easy" about an "easy look" in the right direction at the wrong time. In fact, there are few things more difficult.
Hmm. Gives me an idea for an invention. It is certain to be a big seller.
A tiny, clip-on, fold-out, rear vision mirror for men's eyeglasses.
It will be marketed for personal security, of course.
I wonder if it will be popular with women as well. You never know.
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Another name for "tour-de-force" could be "over-kill". I remember reading stories about King Arthur's knights, when one of them would hit his adversary on the helmet with his sword, and cleave him right down to his crotch.
To which wwh added in a PM, posted now with his permission:
"Cleave to the crotch" is "Like the Irish one about the hero saying he would lie down and bleed a while, and then get up and fight some more. That had to be written by some poet who never saw any combat at all. A man that has shed any appreciable amount of blood, particularly after heavy exertion, goesinto shock, and in the days when transfusion was impossible,was not likely to survive."
This Irish hero is a dainty and a malingerer next to Mel Gibson's "Christ" in "The Passion of the Christ", wwh.
I am not a student of the healing arts, but it was obvious, even to me, that no human being could have survived the scourging which Gibson's character received the day before he dragged a 200 pound cross halfway across the city en route to Calvary Hill.
Regarding the scourging: After 2 men nearly exhausted themselves flagellating the Christ character until he couldn't rise up to take more after heroic previous efforts, the two men began to work him over, first back and then front, with whips equipped with metal claws which tore flesh from his body and splattered blood in their faces.
Finally, they dragged him away leaving the public square looking like the floor of an abattoir, propped him up against a wall, and ministered to him with taunts and insults and phlegm pitched at high velocity.
While the sun was still high in the sky on the same day of the scourging, the Christ character was escorted, walking under his own power, for his final appearance before Pontius Pilate and the rabid crowd which was baying for his crucifixion.
The next day his ordeal began in earnest.
That any man could have survived a scourging of the type depicted, forget the stroll down the Via Dolorosa the next day, is more miraculous than anything else recorded in the bible, at least it makes the Resurrection look like a cakewalk.
Curious no movie reviewer I have seen or read has commented on this aspect of "shock".
Note: Previewed in advance with wwh who has assured me it would not offend because it is a movie review, not religious commentary.
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Dear grapho: I hope noboby thinks I regard myself arbiter
elegantiarum . That was what started our flame war. Let's not have another.
http://www.sacklunch.net/Latin/A/arbiterelegantiarum.html
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I hope noboby thinks I regard myself arbiter
elegantiarum.
If there is any offence taken by anyone (other than Mel Gibson), and certainly none was intended, it is entirely my cross to bear, not yours, wwh.
It's only a movie.
I am not the first reviewer to have abhorred the unremitting violence and the absence of spirituality.
One reviewer said "This is the most violent movie I have ever seen".
I can't agree with him only because I didn't see it to the end.
I walked out halfway up the Via Dolorosa, my sensibilities soaked in blood.
BTW there was one other detail which seems to have been lost by reviewers amidst the unpitying orgy of brutality and blood.
The devil character glides through the crowd at intervals viewing the Christ figure's torment on the Via Dolorosa with a hint of unmistakable pleasure.
Does that seem likely?
The Christ figure was proceeding to his death on the cross to save humanity from the clutches of the devil himself.
This was surely the moment of the devil's greatest agony, not a moment for sadistic glee.
Mel Gibson's devil blew it in more ways than one. He lost the whole ball game with a twisted smirk on his face.
That twisted smirk might well have been intended for Mel himself, the devil getting the last laugh in this movie.
In my humble opinion, "The Passion of the Christ" has set Christianity back at least 500 years.
This movie speaks to a Christianity which cannot speak to us in our times.
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There was an interesting article on the medical aspects of the death of Jesus of Nazareth published in the 1986 Journal of the American Medical Association. http://www.cfpeople.org/Apologetics/page51a024.html
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