“Certain individual words do possess more pitch, more radiance, more shazam! than others, but it's the way words are juxtaposed with other words in a phrase or sentence that can create magic. Perhaps literally. The word "grammar," like its sister word "glamour," is actually derived from an old Scottish word that meant "sorcery." When we were made to diagram sentences in high school, we were unwittingly being instructed in syntax sorcery, in wizardry. We were all enrolled at Hogwarts. Who knew?” WayMadeSchoolCertainIndividualMagicHigh SchoolSentencesPhrasesGrammarGlamourScottishRadianceSyntaxSorceryDiagramsWizardryHogwarts Author:Tom Robbins
“Community is another such phenomenon. Like electricity, it is profoundly lawful. Yet there remains something about it that is inherently mysterious, miraculous, unfathomable. Thus there is no adequate one-sentence definition of genuine community. Community is something more than the sum of its parts, its individual members. What is this "something more?" Even to begin to answer that, we enter a realm that is not so much abstract as almost mystical. It is a realm where words are never fully suitable and language itself falls short.” FallIndividualLanguageCommunityAnswersMembersRemainsDefinitionsSentencesGenuineMysteriousRealmsAbstractPhenomenonElectricityMysticalAdequateMiraculousSuitableUnfathomableOne Sentence Book:The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace Source: The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace
“What is or is not the jargon is determined by whether the word is written in an intonation which places it transcendently in opposition to its own meaning; by whether the individual words are loaded at the expense of the sentence, its propositional force, and the thought content.” IndividualForceWrittenDeterminedSentencesOppositionExpensesLoadedJargonIntonation Book:Adorno Source: Adorno
“No diplomatic intervention will ever be made by any government that I lead in support of any individual terrorist's life. We have only indicated in the past, and will maintain a policy in the future, of intervening diplomatically in support of Australian nationals who face capital sentences abroad.” MadeGovernmentPastFacesIndividualSupportPolicySentencesTerroristInterventionAustralianDiplomaticLead InIntervening Author:Kevin Rudd
“Perhaps the deterioration of American education is illustrated by the high correlation between the number of years a person has attended school and his inability to understand the words "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." It is more likely, though, that those who interpret the Second Amendment to preclude an individual right to own guns are driven by their political agenda. Whichever the case, they do themselves no credit when they tell us that a simple, elegant sentence means the opposite of what it clearly says.” PeopleYearsMeanPersonsSchoolPoliticalPoliticsIndividualSimpleNumbersEducationCasesArmsBearsGunOppositesCreditSentencesDrivenAgendasAmendmentsElegantInabilitySecond AmendmentCorrelationDeteriorationPolitical AgendasAmerican Education Author:Sheldon Richman