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"To be positive: To be mistaken at the top of one's voice."
Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
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"Wit, n. The salt with which the American humorist spoils his intellectual cookery
by leaving it out." A. B., The Devil's Dictionary
--Whit
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Pooh-Bah
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Wit, n. The salt with which etc. etc. I can't allow the implication that you are without wit, Whit. And quite apart from the fact that your writings are full of it. Just look at it this way: If it be allowed that you have none, then you become "hmanO'Neill"Your words are never ill-written, which makes you "hmanO'Ne"On this board you, in common with us all, are never alone but are a part of the whole, which makes you "hman"This process of reduction is enough to unman the best of us (amongst whom you surely rank); so you become "h"If this is taken to such an extreme, you will have to avoid any trip to London, where we habitually drop our 'aithches' 
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And quite apart from the fact that your writings are full of it.hehehe
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Aw, you just wiped me out!!  -- " ' " (that's all that's left of me!)
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"OBSOLETE, adj.
No longer used by the timid. Said chiefly of words. A word which some lexicographer has marked obsolete is ever thereafter an object of dread and loathing to the fool writer, but if it is a good word and has no exact modern equivalent equally good, it is good enough for the good writer. Indeed, a writer's attitude toward 'obsolete' words is as true a measure of his literary ability as anything except the character of his work. A dictionary of obsolete and obsolescent words would not only be singularly rich in strong and sweet parts of speech; it would add large possessions to the vocabulary of every competent writer who might not happen to be a competent reader."
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Pooh-Bah
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May the stars forbid!! I merely point out a potential to which we all are subject - I've just looked askance at my own name, and seen that the same fate is possible, if I am unwary!  BTW, I've just noticed that my posts run into four figures, now - rather like my corporeal figure
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Whit signs himself -- " ' " (that's all that's left of me!); to which AnnaStrophic replies. But should the reply have been a postrophic, rather than a nnastrophic? Are you completely positive? [ , in the spirit of the original post of this thread]
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Whit signs himself -- " ' " (that's all that's left of me!);
to which AnnaStrophic replies.
Huh?
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Whitman became apostrophic,"'", rather than annastrophic (and you annastrophic, replied..!) and least i think that is what he meant.. but i am not positive! or as brief as '!
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Ah, thanks for the explanation, Helen. Actually® WO'N and I were posting simultaneously, so I can't claim any credit for, er, wit.
Meanwhile, here's one for you, stales:
"GEOLOGY, n.
The science of the earth's crust -- to which, doubtless, will be added that of its interior whenever a man shall come up garrulous out of a well. The geological formations of the globe already noted are catalogued thus: The Primary, or lower one, consists of rocks, bones or mired mules, gas-pipes, miners' tools, antique statues minus the nose, Spanish doubloons and ancestors. The Secondary is largely made up of red worms and moles. The Tertiary comprises railway tracks, patent pavements, grass, snakes, mouldy boots, beer bottles, tomato cans, intoxicated citizens, garbage, anarchists, snap-dogs and fools."
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I've just looked askance at my own name, and seen that the same fate is possible, if I am unwary!Don't tempt me, Rhuby! 
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Actually® WO'N and I were posting simultaneously
Not to mention she was replying to tsuwm and not to Whitman as anyone could easily tell if he knew how to go into threaded mode.
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I'm fully aware, faldage, but I did (and do) think the double pun is fun, and harmless -- and also plays on a subject dear to your heart, the difference between flat and threaded modes. Sorry you didn't enjoy it. Perhaps you'd have spotted the humor more facilely if you knew how to go into flat mode.
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the apostrophic questionAkshully, my response was to both Rhuby and AnnaS...your posts "wiped me out" with laughter, and Rhuby literally wiped me out in name as well...except for the '.  I guess the plural "you" I saw should've been "you guys." Ah, the vagaries of language!
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>Ah, the vagaries of language!
ah, the vagueness of languor!
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>ah, the vagueness of languor!
ah, the language of vagrants!
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Personally, as a real estate lawyer, I am less concerned with
the language of vagrant, than with
the language of a grant, or, in the case of security interest,
mortgage grant of a land.
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TEd
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old hand
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Sheakespeare wrote of avaricious lawyers: "Yon Cassius has a lien, and hungry look."
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Abraham Lincoln in his years as a practicing attorney (from Carl Sandburg's Abraham Lincoln / The Prairie Years):
A fuddy-duddy judge corrected Lincoln's pronunciation of the word "lien" as "lean" saying it should be as "lion." In a minute or two Lincoln again pronounced the word his way, and again being corrected apologized, "As you please, your honor." And slipping again and the judge again correcting, he replied, "If my client had known there was a lion on his farm he wouldn't have stayed there long enough to bring this suit."
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