Results tagged “words” from The official blog of Vat19.com

As times change, catch phrases, slang, advice, and proverbs (to name just a few things!) are bound to also change.

I recently came across 65 Modern Proverbs by Nikki Farquharson. This book, which I don't think is for sale, is a collection of proverbs that have been modified to fit today's world. For example, the old Friedrich Nietzsche quote "That which does not kill us makes us stronger" had been updated to "That which does not kill us scars us for life". And isn't that the truth? I don't know exactly what meaning she intended (or if I should even think about it so much!), but I can see it in two different ways. Sometimes something happens that totally weakens you and in no way strengthens you. That experience, as they say, has scarred you for life. In another way, it seems like every time someone does something bad, they fall back on a terrible experience they had in their past as an excuse for being a total jackass today.

Another proverb listed in the book that I like is "A C-lister of all trades is an A-lister of none". True that. Would you rather be reallly really awesome at one thing or just OK at a bunch of stuff?

You can see a few more at Nikki's website. So far, I haven't seen a place where you can read all 65 proverbs. There are also phrases that you can read from her project that inspired 65 Modern Proverbs. One last thing you should check out: this poster created out of coded text. It's awesomely detailed. Could you imagine if someone tried to "write" that on an Etch-A-Sketch!?

After conducting a brief study among Vat19.com's employees, I've compiled a list of the 5 most difficult two-word tongue twisters. It's unlikely that you'll ever say some of these word combinations, but it's fun to try to say them and even more fun to listen to others try to say them!

Try to say each combination of words 5 times fast.

5. Request report
I had a friend that could not even say this one time, at normal speed.

4. Girl gargoyle
"Gargoyle" isn't a very common word, and it is even less common to specify that the gargoyle is a girl.

3. Toy boat
OK, this is one that you might actually say, although you probably wouldn't say it 5 times in a row unless you were a little kid whining that you wanted a toy boat.

2. Rural juror
Some people can't even say "rural" or "juror" separately!

1. Irish wristwatch
Neither myself nor any of my co-workers could say this 5 times fast. Heck, once is hard enough!

If you know some really difficult tongue twisters, feel free to leave them in the comments so we can all give them a try.