Think about it: Big Bang Theory. Err firecrackers? Popping balloons (shudder)? Sheldon? Explain that in ten words or less.
In fact, most of these memes make less sense than the cliches and housewives' myths handed down through the generations (like the perfect way to make tea), which usually only inadvertently make sense (there is no perfect way to make tea, because coffee. You heard me. Coffee). "Absence makes the heart grow fonder." Aaaaaand sometimes it doesn't. "Haste makes waste." Not in the movies. You're not exactly going to sit down to think when an alarm starts running its mouth off in a nuclear reactor.
Here are some clangers.
The words are very pretty and, in these cases, make some superficial sense and give us a warm feeling that would otherwise be a symptom of internal bleeding. Although this may surprise you, I am a book person, a reader, a literate. I am also a creative who fits into the box of stereotypical characters of writers quite nicely, with some shuffling. So I can tell you that the imagination is mostly escapism and creating is more a by-product. I've lived the thousand lives The Man of One Thousand Books is alluding to. Many are independent of books and live like moss in the damper parts of my brain.
Let's take a breather here. What is The Point of this post? a) The Big Bang Theory b) Memes c) Game of Thrones d) Coffee e) None of the Above.
The Point is always coffee but you get points for trying if you went with e). Now, we're rounding a hairpin bend, so stay with me, you.
Reading turns you into a know-it-all. I am a false measure, because I was this way to start with. I once tried to convince my mother than one million was actually one thousand thousand. My clincher was "my teacher told me". This is like Maths in school - most of your marks were for working out, even if your numbers were wrong. So my logic was wandering in the right direction, but it could have hit the million between the eyes if I had listened.
A reader can, and will, tell you about Emperor butterflies (all my knowledge about these creatures comes from the books of Enid Blyton so it could, for all I know, be a strictly fictitious thing. Although, who would make up a butterfly?), the aftermath of World War I and where Anastacia's body is. Replace these facts with whatever fact the reader in your life is currently spouting.
This occurred to me because, in lieu of being able to give anything my attention for more than five minutes right now, I am devouring magazines as if they were episodes of The Office (fyi my favourite two series. Like, ever). Mostly techie or cultural things (fashion magazines, by comparison, are just recycled and often contradictory tidbits, like whether ripped denim looks trashy and whether yellow lipstick ever suits anyone. Like, ever).
Ok, I confess. I just wanted to regale you with some annoying facts about the world. Anticipating it would be annoying, I tried to ride in on the back of a Lipizzaner - donkey - mule deer - camel. Basically, I tried to hide my intention in plain sight. Since we've come all this way, I am just going to go ahead as if I had not confessed anything at all. Which, honestly, is the way most Catholics go about it.
So, did you know that nuclear reactors are being phased out, by not being upgraded, the output slowed and the plants shut, because they are not efficient sources of power? Although it is an efficient source of death and general suffering. Did you know that a team of countries hacked into the nuclear facilities of another country and shut the whole thing down? Did you know that the most complete skeleton of a T-Rex was found in 1977 and is the only one to have arms (that sounds like a meme in the making)? And that T-Rex could not live in today's world because the air isn't dense enough?
Facts are like crosswords: they are addictive. In fact, both are like reading fiction, which is addictive. Don't take my word for this though; nothing accurate can be said in ten words, other than: My favourite dinosaur is the stegosaurus. The cat crossed the road. The tree is tall. While true, they don't have quite the same ring as "A rolling stone gathers no moss" (you spotted it, right, the blatant problem here? A rolling stone probably has crevices that gather moss, because to gather does not mean to grow).
We have inadvertently (phew, this post has meaning) stumbled onto questions about language, truth and culture. None of this can be summed up in ten words, or even in this post, or probably in a lifetime. So, I will distract you with another fact: Eskom (our electricity provider) built a pumped storage site that can power up in five minutes to support the national grid. It is built underground because the site it's built in is home to a rare bird that no one has ever heard sing. Or something.
That was more than ten words, you.
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