Brian Bilston is an anonymous poet who publishes mostly on Facebook and Twitter. Many of his poems play with words and meanings, like this one:
you took the last bus home
you took
the last bus homei still don’t know
how you got it through the doorbut you’re always doing amazing stuff
like the time
when you caught that train
Check out more on his website, the “Poetry Laboetry“.
A blog about the curious things in life: strange incidents, bizarre inventions, uncommon words, useless information, … Check it out!
Created by Newstalk ZB, via The Poke.
Here’s a puzzle:
What has a face and two hands but no arms or legs?
(Obviously, the answer is not ‘a smiley with two hands’.)
Today we talked about the word stunt, which is used differently in English than in German. Here’s a video about party stunts:
Richard Wiseman, a psychologist from the UK, also runs a blog with more interesting videos about optical illusions and the power of imagination.
By the way, Quirkology (the name of Richard’s YouTube channel) is a made-up word (from quirky = weird, eccentric and a standard Latin suffix). So quirkology is the science of the weird and eccentric.
via BoredPanda — a blog (mostly) about the beautiful things in life.
Found on The Poke:
When I was young my father said to me: “Knowledge is Power….Francis Bacon.”
I understood it as “Knowledge is power, France is Bacon”.
For more than a decade I wondered over the meaning of the second part and what was the surreal linkage between the two?
If I said the quote to someone, “Knowledge is power, France is Bacon” they nodded knowingly.
Or someone might say, “Knowledge is power” and I’d finish the quote “France is Bacon” and they wouldn’t look at me like I’d said something very odd but thoughtfully agree.
I did ask a teacher what did “Knowledge is power, France is bacon” mean and got a full 10 minute explanation of the Knowledge is power bit but nothing on “France is bacon”.
When I prompted further explanation by saying “France is Bacon?” in a questioning tone I just got a “yes”.
At 12 I didn’t have the confidence to press it further.
I just accepted it as something I’d never understand.
It wasn’t until years later I saw it written down that the penny dropped.
Good luck for your exams! Luck is power. No, wait…
Found this on the internet. Although probably just a slip, it pretty well sums up what I said about American English in class, doesn’t it?
via The Poke.
The Simpsons is a satirical depiction of the middle-class American lifestyle epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. The show is set in the fictional town of Springfield and parodies American culture, society, television, and many aspects of the human condition. (Wikipedia)
Would you like to watch a Simpsons episode? As a reward for your hard work, we may watch the very first episode ever aired, from 1989, and it’s about Christmas!
