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It is scientifically possible to hoist, say a car back onto a race course without using a petard at all. Indeed if a petard is really a bomb and not some sort of crane as I always thought, then it is mechanically much more sound not to involve petards
Agreed, Zed, so I take it you join me in celebrating this memorable "Faldage".
We can certainly agree that "hoisting" a thing "back on track" is a far more sensible thing to do than "exploding" it back on track [in a jillion pieces], but it is still a curious and inefficient way of getting a thing "back on track" [say a race car, to borrow your example].
Let us recall that a true "Faldage" enlists an image which is improbable [which accounts for its quaintness], not impossible [or self-destructive].
But, Faldage, has declined the temptations of metaphoric fame, so I think we should not draw further attention to his exuberrant talent.
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"exuberant" has an interesting etymology. My dictionary says it is ultimately from Latin "uber" meaning "udder".
So if someone is "exuberant" does that mean they are having galactorrhea?
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 A most curious and hilarious association, wwh! And a worthy addition to the wwhean stable! Might it have been that the uber, in turn, derived metaphorically from the word for bountiful?
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ah, but notice wordmiz' spelling...
formerly known as etaoin...
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ah, but notice wordmiz' spelling...
I have seen the error of my ways. Correction: "exuberant".
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"exuberrant" could mean going "all out" over a precious pectoral prominence.
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"exuberrant" could mean going "all out" over a precious pectoral prominence.
Or, more likely, over a wayward pelvic prominence.
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The well known mons may be a Tarpeian rock.
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The well known mons may be a Tarpeian rock.
A most felicitous reference, wwh, as it hoists us back on course.
It seems the Vestal Virgin Tarpeia, who was duplicitous without being proceptive, and from whom the infamous Tarpaeian rock takes its name, was hoisted with her own petard, as the tale below relates:
... the Vestal Virgin Tarpeia, who betrayed the Romans by letting the Sabines in through the gates after being promised to receive what they 'bore on their arms'. Naturally she hoped for their golden bracelets, instead she was crushed to death between their shields. Her body was buried atop the cliff, giving it its name.
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From Plutarch to plutarch:
"After the overthrow of the Ceninensians, the other Sabines still protracting the time in preparations, the people of Fidenae, Crustumerium, and Antemna joined their forces against the Romans; they in like manner were defeated in battle, and surrendered up to Romulus their cities to be seized, their lands and territories to be divided, and themselves to be transplanted to Rome. All the lands which Romulus acquired, he distributed among the citizens, except only what the parents of the stolen virgins had; these he suffered to possess their own. The rest of the Sabines, enraged hereat, choosing Tatius their captain, marched straight against Rome. The city was almost inaccessible, having for its fortress that which is now the Capitol, where a strong guard was placed, and Tarpeius their captain; not Tarpeia the virgin, as some say who would make Romulus a fool. But Tarpeia, daughter to the captain, coveting the golden bracelets she saw them wear, betrayed the fort into the Sabines' hands, and asked, in reward of her treachery, the things they wore on their left arms. Tatius conditioning thus with her, in the night she opened one of the gates, and received the Sabines. And truly Antigonus, it would seem, was not solitary in saying he loved betrayers, but hated those who had betrayed; nor Caesar, who told Rhymitalces the Thracian, that he loved the treason, but hated the traitor; but it is the general feeling of all who have occasion for wicked men's service, as people have for the poison of venomous beasts; they are glad of them while they are of use, and abhor their baseness when it is over. And so then did Tatius behave towards Tarpeia, for he commanded the Sabines, in regard to their contract, not to refuse her the least part of what they wore on their left arms; and he himself first took his bracelet off his arm, and threw that, together with his buckler, at her; and all the rest following, she, being borne down and quite buried with the multitude of gold and their shields, died under the weight and pressure of them; Tarpeius also himself, being prosecuted by Romulus, was found guilty of treason, as Juba says Sulpicius Galba relates. Those who write otherwise concerning Tarpeia, as that she was the daughter of Tatius, the Sabine captain, and being forcibly detained by Romulus, acted and suffered thus by her father's contrivance, speak very absurdly, of whom Antigonus is one. And Simylus, the poet, who thinks Tarpeia betrayed the Capitol, not to the Sabines, but the Gauls, having fallen in love with their king, talks mere folly, saying thus:-
"Tarpeia 'twas, who, dwelling close thereby,
Laid open Rome unto the enemy,
She, for the love of the besieging Gaul,
Betrayed the city's strength, the Capitol."
And a little after, speaking of her death:-
"The numerous nations of the Celtic foe
Bore her not living to the banks of Po;
Their heavy shields upon the maid they threw,
And with their splendid gifts entombed at once and slew."
Tarpeia afterwards was buried there, and the hill from her was called Tarpeius, until the reign of King Tarquin, who dedicated the place to Jupiter, at which time her bones were removed, and so it lost her name, except only that part of the Capitol which they still called the Tarpeian Rock, from which they used to cast down malefactors."
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