October 9, 2012 (Tuesday)
Proverbs abound. Many people can quote old sayings one after the other. They all make sense. I’ve heard sayings that go something like these:
“A fool and his money are soon parted
A leopard cannot change its spots
A rolling stone gathers no moss
If you don’t like my peaches, don’t shake my trees
A woman’s work is never done”
..and many more
Creative and clever people have learned to quote proverbs, sayings and quotations from poems, etc. with a twist. For example, “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you..then you don’t understand the situation.” Hardly what the original poetry meant to say. Or, the cliche of standard praise changed to, “Of all the men I’ve ever met, he is..one of them.” Ugh, a blow to the ego.
Then there are the out and out counterfeit sayings that remind us of older and better ones, like: “I try to go the extra mile at work, but my boss always finds me and brings me back.” Or, “I like work. It fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.” And, “An expert is someone who takes a subject you understand and makes it sound confusing.”
On and on we could go. What proverbs or sayings have I composed? If I can think of something perhaps I will be quoted often in some distant future. Anonymously. Or, if quoted by name, I can hear it now: “Hey, here’s another Fake saying..”