On 10 Feb 2015 at 5:28pm Irony Lover wrote:
"hoist with one's own petard", means "to be harmed by one's own plan to harm someone else" or "to fall into one's own trap," implying that one could be lifted up (hoist, or blown upward) by one's own bomb.
Old Bloke, if there was ever an expression that described what you continue to do, it is this one. But thanks for making me laugh. A lot.
On 10 Feb 2015 at 6:31pm Old Soak wrote:
Don't encourage him Irony Lover.
On 10 Feb 2015 at 9:05pm willie the shake wrote:
The expression like so many is from Shakespeare. Hamlet changes the name on his own death warrant carried with him to England by Rozencrantz and Guildencrantz so that it refers to them instead of him, thus foiling the evil plans of Uncle Claudius his stepfather.
"There's letters seal'd: and my two schoolfellows,
Whom I will trust as I will adders fang'd,
They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way
And marshal me to knavery. Let it work;
For 'tis the sport to have the enginer
Hoist with his own petar'; and 't shall go hard
But I will delve one yard below their mines
And blow them at the moon: O, 'tis most sweet,
When in one line two crafts directly meet."
On 10 Feb 2015 at 11:26pm Irony Lover wrote:
We shall see if OB can laugh at himself. It would be the healthy thing to do.
On 11 Feb 2015 at 7:02am Sot wrote:
Lots of proverbial Shakspeare is in Hamlet; mostly spoken by Pollonius, establishing his character as a tedious old fool ( For example " To thine own self be true and " Brevity is the soul of wit ")Its ironic that they often quoted as if they were evidence of the great learning of the speaker
My point was that the use of English is not established by reference to lost meanings but by current usage, that said you also get drives or correctness ( perhaps we are under-going a petard revolution or is that just in Fire crazy Lewes )
Did you know the correct pronunciation of Forehead is "Forrid' . The word 'Forrid' was spelt using French models but for centuries had been pronounced Forrid .When mass literacy arrived in the late 19th century people wrongly assumed the correct way to pronounce it was as it was spelt . So is the correct pronunciation Forrid or Fore - head ? We know which is the oldest .
Anyay wittering on about punctuation is really only the online version of playground insults. All of us are much much better at spelling and grammar than Shakespeare was (if consistency is the rule ) and he did alright
On 11 Feb 2015 at 7:53am Old Soak wrote:
The thing is Sot there's still a difference between language developing and being an ignoramus.
On 11 Feb 2015 at 9:46am Briefly wrote:
I think someone also mentioned the benefits of brevity over lengthy waffling.
That is why we remember 'hoist by ones petard' (and variations of), but none of SOT's essays.
On 11 Feb 2015 at 10:50am Mark wrote:
I would miss Sot if he was sectioned under the Mental Health Act or anything like that. Political/economic threads would become very dull. It would just be all people saying things like, "We shouldn't accept how the Tories act of spokesmen for big business in trying to convince us that we urgently need to dismantle all our public services". Or, "MNCs should pay their taxes at a fair rate" and others would reply saying, "Yup, I agree."
On 11 Feb 2015 at 12:15pm Hmmmm wrote:
sound of tumbleweed blowing past...
On 11 Feb 2015 at 1:27pm Southover Queen wrote:
Who on earth is "Polionus"? Are vaccinations in order.
Seriously though, Mark, if/when they do cart SOT off to the loony bin economics/politics threads might revert to proper debates. What happens at the moment is a huge great pile of SOT vomitus spreads an evil pall across everything; I can't be bothered to wade through it all and pick out the sensible bits. (This is a revolting image, I know, and I'm sorry if you're in the middle of lunch, but feels like an apt metaphor)
On 12 Feb 2015 at 1:43am wrote:
Oh SQ, your eyesight is failing you. Paul has mis-spelt Polonius with a superfluous l, not an i.
Wasn't it Polonius who said 'neither a borrower or lender be'?
Presumably Paul thinks that now means 'be a loan shark or vote for one'
On 12 Feb 2015 at 2:13pm oldsmoke wrote:
who is this shakespeare? I wasled to believe he was just a stage hand/horseminder from stratford who's identity was used by that dastardly elizabethan spy, Mr Marlowe
On 12 Feb 2015 at 2:36pm Horse wrote:
I wasled to water but I wouldunt drink. I think my halter was made by Mr. Marlowe in his Hailsham factory, dunno about the shakeyspear though.
On 12 Feb 2015 at 5:36pm Old Bloke wrote:
@Irony Lover - splendid - you are typical of most of the contributors to this forum.
Don't be proud of it.
If you like I can lend you a torch to help you find your way down from the dark passage you're stuck very high up
On 12 Feb 2015 at 7:15pm Forum Regular wrote:
Oh dear, no sense of humour, or irony.
The thing is OB, you made a rod for your own back. Irony Lover has probably been victim, like the rest of us, to your endless nit-picking over grammar, punctuation, and even obvious typo's. Getting cross, being aggressively rude, and refusing to back down simply puts you in the Chris Huhne, or Andrew Mitchell Category. And look where that got them.
On 13 Feb 2015 at 1:50am wrote:
And more pertinently Jonathan Aitkin, with his own Sword of Truth.
It got him jail time.
On 13 Feb 2015 at 1:50am wrote:
And more pertinently Jonathan Aitkin, with his own Sword of Truth.
It got him jail time.