These are the quicksilver moments of my childhood I cannot remember entirely. Irresistible and emblematic, I can recall them only in fragments and shivers of the heart.
—Pat Conroy
—from The Prince of Tides
Wellerism /WEL-ər-izm/. noun. An expression combining an obvious statement—usually a well-known cliche, quotation or proverb—followed by a facetious addition. A canonical example: “I see, said the blind man,” which exists in myriad forms. Named after Sam Weller, a comic character in Charles Dickens’ The Pickwick Papers, prone to making this kind of statement, for example, “There; now we look compact and comfortable, as the father said ven he cut his little boy’s head off, to cure him o’ squintin’.” Unlike the “sarcastic interrogatives” explored here last week, Wellerisms have been clearly documented in other languages, such as in the Dutch, “Alles met mate, zei de kleermaker en hij sloeg zijn vrouw met de el,” which translates into English as, “everything should be done measuredly, said the tailor and he hit his wife with a ruler.”
See also: Tom Swiftys, a form of Wellerism that uses a pun on the attribution. Again, an example from Dickens: “You find it Very Large?” said Mr. Podsnap, spaciously." Both of these are of a rhetorical form covered here before, the paraprosdokian.
And one more thing…note how Wellerisms and Tom Swiftys can be reversed and turned into a joke or riddle: “What did Archimedes say to the skunk? Eureka!”
Some more Wellerisms and Tom Swifty’s (what are some of yours or others you’ve heard?):
This is personal: Please Stop Calling Suicide Victims “Selfish” or “Weak”. || See also: Artificial intelligence can now predict suicide with remarkable accuracy.
Is the death of reading threatening the soul in a “quiet war?”
Does (counter-intuitively to me) announcing your plans make you less motivated to accomplish them? Yes and no. || See also, the original study (PDF).
Whoa! Dan Harmon is bringing Kurt Vonnegut’s The Sirens Of Titan to TV. In case you don’t know who Dan Harmon is, he created Community and co-created Adult Swim and Rick and Morty. If you don’t know who Kurt Vonnegut is—
On Swintec’s clear typewriters, the only kind allowed in many prisons, and their role in prison life.
No one could see the colour blue until modern times? || Embedded within that story, a fascinating Radiolab story: Why Isn’t the Sky Blue? || And within that: Why Red Means Red in Almost Every Language. I dare you not to think of the the dress.
Take a moment to savor the amazing winners of the BigPicture Photography Competition, a gallery bookended by two of my favorite wildlife pictures ever. [Thanks, Reader B.!]
Find those elusive songs from TV and movies using Tunefind.
Following up on a story noted here a few weeks ago: Salvador Dalí’s Remains Exhumed, Revealing A Perfectly Arranged Mustache.
Today in 1829, William Austin Burt is granted U.S. patent No. 5581X for his “typographer”, called therein, “the first practical typewriting machine.” This wasn’t really true…Italian inventor Pellegrino Turri had invented one nearly 30 years before for his blind lover the Countess Carolina Fantoni da Fivizzano, of which some typewritten pages survived.
Time and Space is the third place winner of the Galway Film Fleadh One Minute Film Festival competition. See past winners (and presumably, soon, the rest of this year’s crop) on their site.
Apparently, the Photographer Being Sued By A Monkey Over Its “Selfie” Is Now Broke.
A few sarcastic interrogatives from readers (some a bit darker than others): Does a pigeon’s butt pucker in a power-dive? Is Helen ready? Does Rose Kennedy own a black dress? Does Rebecca Black like Fridays? Does your mom darn socks [must be a family thing]? Does the Pope wear a funny hat? And, of course, does the Pope poop in the woods?
Reader B. on last week’s issue: “Another trove!”
Reader G.: “Loved the 25 maps! Language is so interesting. ¶ Those anti-suffragette postcards are something else… I’ll just leave it at that.”
Reader M.: “I’m not sure why anyone wouldn’t want a third thumb. It might not be enough to save us as a species.”
I welcome comments, suggestions, thoughts, feedback and all manner of what-have-you. Just press ‘Reply’ or email to: clippings@katexic.com.
Enjoy the WORK section? Try Notabilia http://ktxc.to/nb for a new WORK every day and concīs http://ktxc.to/concismag publishing original short pieces of all kinds.
And please feel free to share anything here as far and wide as you want! If you want to give a shout-out, please link to: http://katexic.com/.
You just read issue #348 of katexic clippings. You can also browse the full archives of this newsletter.