Nearby cities that I have never visited (expressways and airports don’t count):
- Atlanta
- Detroit
- Nashville
- Memphis
- Montreal
Category: Fives
Cultural touchstones I have never seen
And probably never will:
- E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
- Forrest Gump (1994)
- Alien (1979)
- Titanic (1997)
- When Harry Met Sally… (1989)
Some definitions
- EXTIRPATE
- Verb applied only to heresies and corns.
- FACE
- The mirror of the soul. So some people must have very ugly souls.
- INSTRUMENT
- If it has been used to commit a crime, it is always “blunt,” unless it happens to be sharp.
- LIGHT
- Always say: “fiat lux” when a candle is lighted.
- TOYS
- Should always be educational.
—Gustave Flaubert, “The Dictionary of Received Ideas,” ed. and trans. by Robert Baldick and A.J. Krailsheimer
Some lists: 3
Inappropriate Muzak for the food court
- “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” by Gordon Lightfoot
- “O Fortuna,” the opening song of Carmina Burana, composed by Carl Orff
- “Always True To You (In My Fashion),” by Cole Porter
- (tie) “Synchronicity II”, by The Police; “In the Year 2525 (Exordium and Terminus),” by Zager and Evans
- “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught,” by Rodgers and Hammerstein
Inspired by a lite-jazz something I heard in Chick-Fil-A that sounded for a moment like #3.