Bad Consolatio
Have you tried feeling better about it
Ars rhetorica
Oh! I Guess You Could Call That Uncanny?
...Oh! I see. This is supposed to be the eerie part, then?
How Far Afield Can Sci-Fi and Fantasy "Fake Swearing" Get Before You Feel Uncomfortable?
On the one hand, it is unlikely that three hundred years in the future, a group of space marauders is going to rely on the same profanity as twenty-first-century North Americans. But on the other hand, everything else sounds worse.
Oh! So You Call That Jouissance, Do You?
Well, don't let me stop you, by all means!
I've Just Arrived From The Court Of Your Enemy And It Was So Meager – Unlike This Court, Which Is So Opulent
Insufficient! That is precisely the word, majesty – precisely the word I would have used. The mot juste. It was hardly a court at all! An assembly, maybe.
How to Undermine a New Candidate to Your Social Circle Without Looking Cruel
You must be like a chimpanzee in the zoo, who pretends to like a new chimpanzee and offers it fruit when the other chimpanzees are watching. Only when the other chimpanzees are looking at something else can you step on the fruit, spoiling it for everyone.
Chat Umpire
Tim Acuting. Why “despise”? Why “condemn”?
Yeah I’ve Been Feeling Pretty Good Lately Except For
Oh, hey man – how's it going? – Yeah, I'm doing okay – I don't know –
lately I've been really craving ice – like a lot of ice –
The Pleasures of Saying "Boy, They Just Don't Make 'Em Like That Anymore"
It's pleasantly folksy-sounding, but not so folksy it becomes off-putting or makes you sound inauthentic. Like how you sometimes seem inauthentic when you're talking to someone with a Southern accent and then you start talking with a Southern accent.
The State of Philosophy Five Minutes Before Cynicism
There's a little artificiality in almost all human conduct and affairs. That's understandable!