bnjtokyo -- Indeed I do find your Japanese tongue twister fascinating. I didn't know that Japanese was tonal, although I did know that multiple characters have the same vocalization. (The number of distinct syllables can be inferred by the number of kana; far fewer than the number of kanji.) Thank y...

Slava, isn't there a line in a play, "He's depraved on accounta he's deprived"? (But I've forgotten which one.)

And superfluity should not be confused with superfluidity,

The event for which I like to wish everyone good wishes and good will this time of year is the solstice https://www.alphadictionary.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=54914 -- winter north of the equator, and summer to the south. It's only one day every six months, but is reliable and shows no preferences for b...

But "one of only three" is so much more precise and informative ... why not just drop the "the"? Oh, I know, relevance. (Creeps back into fuddy-duddy corner.)

Since "only" implies uniqueness, "one of the only" doesn't make sense.
What's wrong with "one of the few", which still implies a very small candidate pool?

Or am I just becoming an old fuddy-duddy?

It's really past time that ordinary spell checkers be replaced by a tool that also checks context and grammar. Many years ago, I saw on a bulletin board in the Stanford computer science department a notice that announced "the semester will being on September ...". Okay, a harried secretary...

Let's have a little fun with homophones

Appalachian is the appellation for a mountain chain and its eponymous Trail, which follows the summits from Georgia to Maine.

Slava, you're tantalizing us, or are you sending us on a scavenger hunt?
(And that is *surely* not the original meaning of "scavenger".)

A genuine contranym.

In management, oversight means keeping watch over, while lack of sufficient oversight might cause an oversight (a slipup) to be overlooked.

(And an overlook, on a scenic road, is a fine place to stop and enjoy he view.)

Another seasonal reference is "a one-horse open sleigh", although that song, "Jingle Bells", has nothing to do with Christmas, and only gained that association later. But the phrase "one horse ... sleigh" conjures up the quite unrelated "The One Hoss Shay" by ...

While I understand that spelling might be corrected by changing the expression to "abated breath", that would spoil the lovely alliteration. And it would remove the opportunity to wonder what sort of bait might actually be effective, and for what. (But I tend to be perverse that way.)

While I'm not sure about the book "Moby Dick", the annual read-aloud at the New Bedford Whaling Museum is certainly a good occasion for schmoozing.

Since we've gotten to Tom Lehrer (one of the joys of my childhood), I will offer a recorded interlude -- the 75th Latin Carol Celebration at Brown University: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dni9tmfi_Ys . With the exception of a few offerings in Greek or Sanskrit (chanted), plus a few slips by the f...

This has appeared in quite a few discussions, but not yet on its own. Having just enjoyed the annual Latin Carol Celebration at my alma mater (the 75th, no less), where the ultima carmina was "Ornate ramosas aulas" ("Deck the halls"), it seemed an appropriate time. Of course, in ...