MetaChat - Reducing both the obvious and subtle of a common experience

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31 January 2008

Reducing both the obvious and subtle of a common experience to its most simple and expressive form. Have you ever summed up or heard someone sum up a situation or event perfectly in just a couple of words?→[More:]

Friends of mine went out to breakfast a couple weeks ago. Liz, John and, Foster, out to Elvis, named so for the Elvis convention breakfast held there a few years ago. I don’t remember the proper name of the place but the joint is in The Courthouse district, maybe Roslyn, in Arlington, VA.

So, it was a very quiet breakfast with each person silently enjoying their meal and each others company. Then, breaking the long silence, Foster lifted his head and faced the others, holding a beautifully golden crisp piece of bacon, and gently and matter-of-factly declared, “Bacon is like meat candy.” John and Liz smiled and nodded. Then they continued their breakfast in silence.

post by: MonkeyButter at: 19:34 | 9 comments

That happens on metafilter all the time. It's an awesome thing to behold. (And it's never ever me doing it, alas.)

posted by small_ruminant 31 January | 19:42

I hear ya sr

posted by MonkeyButter 31 January | 19:49

A friend of mine once told me, with utter disdain, that "walking is so pedestrian". It was one of the most marvelously economic and hilarious uses of the language I'd ever heard.

posted by WolfDaddy 31 January | 21:33

Not everyone will understand this, but a few winters ago, while slowly picking our way along an icy sidewalk, navigating carefully between mounds of snow and ponds of slush, my buddy Will sighed and said, "I can't wait until Spring so I can finally look up." To this day it remains my favorite description of Winter in Chicago.

posted by eamondaly 01 February | 00:20

cool

posted by MonkeyButter 01 February | 01:16

jonmc does it all the time when he comments about daily events.

We were having brunch with some friends at the beach and the topic turned to the upcoming election (I think it was 2004), and how the campaign rhetoric and media spin went on & on with increasingly murky meaning. I said, "it's like mixing paint - it never goes back to white."

I also told someone once that books were heat sinks for words.

A friend of mine walked in the house and upon seeing all the little bits of dark lint on the light carpet said, "Look at all that sock meat!"

posted by chewatadistance 01 February | 08:02

The first time I heard the word "clusterfuck" I thought it was an incredibly useful simple description of a complicated, messed-up, confusing situation.

posted by Miko 01 February | 11:57

Miko's right - clusterfuck is a really good one!

posted by chewatadistance 01 February | 12:21

I just heard another of my recent favorites on TV. For expressing the idea that some people begin life with advantages that they don't realize are advantages, and credit all their acheivements to personal merit and hard work:

"He was born on second base, but thinks he hit a triple."

posted by Miko 01 February | 22:24

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