The synonym system knew that a dog was similar to a puppy and that boiling water was hot. But it also thought a hot dog was a boiling puppy.
That passage is from a WIRED magazine article on Google searches. Poor boiling puppies! (And poor puppies in those ridiculous outfits)
Incidentally, Mark McVeigh, super-editor turned super-agent, has a blog post on hot dogs today as well. The content is totally different but I thought it was interesting: what are the chances of two blogs devoted to writing and publishing focusing on hot dogs on the same day?
(Now my statistically-minded friends will consider that a challenge...)
Onto GALM proper. Since I am primarily a fiction writer, I will post a line from a fiction. This is from the The Elegance of Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery:
As always, I am saved by the inability of living creatures to believe anything that might cause the walls of their little mental assumptions to crumble.
A big thanks to those of you who came over to comment and to offer memorable lines. Last week, Bish enjoyed this line from The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo.
Peter could see the magician all too clearly. His beard was long and wild, his fingernails ragged and torn, his cloak covered in a patina of mold. His eyes burned bright, but they were the eyes of a cornered animal: desperate and pleading and angry all at the same time.
Nandini quote from Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
Deryn felt brilliant, rising through the air at the center of everyone's attention, like an acrobat aloft on a swing. She wanted to make a speech: "Hey, all you sods, I can fly and you can't! A natural airman, in case you haven't noticed. And in conclusion, I'd like to add that I'm a girl and you can all get stuffed!"
And Corey will to back to the Berkshires soon to get her book!
What caught you this week? (besides hot dogs, that is.)
5 comments:
Hi Yat-Yee, I've been reading Megan Whalen Turner lately. Tried to find lines that stood out. Somehow, the lines by themselves seem simple, but the books as a whole are exceptional. Anyhow, here's a couple of lines from The Queen of Attolia.
He put down his pen and listened. He was a soldier as well as a scholar. and he was not unfamiliar with the sound of men screaming.
Oops! That should be a comma after scholar not a period.
He put down his pen and listened. He was a soldier as well as a scholar, and he was not unfamiliar with the sound of men screaming.
I hate to be repetitive, but I have a quote from The Magician's Elephant today. (Since Bish recommended the book to me, maybe that's fitting.)
Below him were the twisting, turning cobblestoned streets, the small shops with their crooked tiled roofs, and the pigeons who forever perched atop them, singing sad songs that did not quite begin and never truly ended.
Nandini: I know what you mean by some writing that is wonderful throughout and it's hard to just pick out a line out of context. But this line you chose is excellent: soldier and a scholar, not used to the sound of men screaming, says a lot.
Melissa: Oh no, please don't apologize for choosing from the same book. This is PRECISELY what I wanted from GLAM, that we learn about books from one another. I am glad it worked for you. You are the third person to talk about this book, I'll have to bump it up my TBR pile.
I loved Leviathan. My favorite part was when Devyn realized being a boy was barking hard work. I LOL'ed!
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