Questions for Discussion:

[penfield]

1. People say you can't judge a book by it's cover. Can't you? Isn't that what covers are for? Generally I try to suppress the urge to deconstruct idiomatic aphorisms like "waste not, want not" or "a stitch in time saves nine." But this one is too wrong and used too often. Who came up with this stupid phrase?


2. Which lesiure activity is most clearly analagous to dating:
- fly fishing
- square dancing
- bobbing for apples
- Russian roulette


3. When watching and listening to the Super Bowl this weekend, consider the broadcast analysts: Would you rather listen to someone who is well-spoken but generally a moron^[1], or someone who occasionally provides intelligent commentary but sounds like his mouth is full of marshmallows^[2]?


4. Hypothetical: If your best friend was about to marry someone whom you believed to be a douchebag, would you still agree to stand at the altar and give a speech at the reception? If you were about to get married and your best friend told you that your prospective spouse was probably an douchebag, what would you do?


5. In the popular 1958 song "Who Wrote the Book of Love," most famously performed by the Monotones (What an awful band name, by the way), there is a verse that goes:
Chapter one says to love her
You love her with all your heart
Chapter two you tell her
You never, never, never, never, ever gonna part
In chapter three remember
The meaning of romance
In chapter four you break up
...

Is the next line "But you give it just one more chance" or "You give her just one more chance"? Various sources give differing accounts and of course the record was made long before the convention of publishing lyrics. When I first wondered aloud about this question, I got into an honest-to-goodness heated argument about it with my then-girlfriend. Which is it? Which should it be? I'd like to write the person who wrote the song, but in a delightfully ironic twist, I can't figure out who wrote "Who Wrote the Book of Love?"

Comments

[1]

[enchanted-pants.livejournal.com]

For example, CBS analyst Dan Dierdorf. I recently watched a replay of Super Bowl XXV, in which he provided the following expert commentary:

"People are telling [Giants backup QB Jeff Hostetler] 'Don't lose this game.' I say that's nonsense. I say he should try to win this game."

This has to be one of the dumbest things I've ever heard anyone say, ever. And I work in politics.

[2]

[enchanted-pants.livejournal.com]

I am thinking here of CBS studio personality Shannon Sharpe. For example, in a halftime analysis of this year's AFC Championship Game, Sharpe said:

"Ya gotta downa bowda bowda duffa Brady gow. A bidda gadda daw Manning, ba didda gugga."

And then, of course, James Brown, Dan Marino and Boomer Esiason laughed hysterically.

Exactly

[village-twins.livejournal.com]

I agree completely about judging a book by its cover. As I've said, I can indeed judge a book by its cover.

(And anyway, the premise is that one can't accurately judge a book by the cover, not that one can't do it.)

But usually, I can do it. Accurately.

Re: Exactly

[village-twins.livejournal.com]

Also, I challenge the assertion that Dierdorf is "well-spoken" and Shannon Sharpe "occasionally provides intelligent commentary."

Re: Exactly

[(Anonymous)]

I don't agree! Can you really tell if your going to like a book or not just by looking at the outside of it? Sure you can tell the genre, and what the basic story is. But that doens't mean you'll like it. The whole point of the saying is that you can't judge a person by the way they look on the outside. You may be able to tell some basic things about that person, but you can't know that person just by looking at them. Who are we to judge, anyway.