When, finally, he asked me to move in with him, I was overjoyed. At last I felt we were a proper couple. I even dared hope for a future together. (Daily Mail)
Police are being told to make more eye contact and say people’s names when dealing with the public. (BBC News Aug 2013-08-10)
We preach pre-incident contingency planning. (LAPD spokesman)
I have a date coming up and have all the usual date questions lined up. (menshealth.co.uk)
Some forms must be gone through before a man can marry a million. (George Eliot, Daniel Deronda)
“[I’m good at being formal, but] it’s a horrid bore, because it involves a lot of doing of things you dislike, tactical planning, personal adaptation and looking ahead.” (Rachel Ferguson, The Brontes Go to Woolworths)
Other uses of the notion of performativity in the social sciences include the daily behaviour (or performance) of individuals based on social norms or habits. (Free Dictionary)
The reporters made tentative, hovering movements. (Ngaio Marsh, Vintage Murder)
People quietly frown upon single women, wondering what's wrong with women like me who haven't married yet or may never marry. Single women are excluded from social circles because married women fear they will "steal their men". (Crystal Wright in the Guardian 6 Aug 2013 talking about the US.)
There is no such thing as fate, providence, karma, spells, curses, augury, divine retribution, or answered prayers. (Stephen Pinker)
People say that nothing is impossible but some things are. (9-year-old quoted on Twitter)
From within you got very strong, but also you got coarsened. (Ian Dury on the cruel and abusive school for the disabled he attended)
Newsnight is like the bright outgoing schoolboy who becomes bullied and loses all confidence. (Twitter)
I had learned how to be tough. (Floella Benjamin She beat up the children who bullied her sister, and they never bullied her again.)
Synod reminds me of school - you see who to sit with. There are the noisy bullies and the quiet marginal people, the in crowd and the loners. (Robert McCrum, Observer 2013-07-21 on the CoE)
If one is singled out for exclusion, it isn’t unreasonable to fear that there might be grounds for it, that one might indeed be unworthy in some way, or again that simply by being excluded one might become unworthy, at least in the eyes of one’s peers. (Tim Parks on Dickens, LRB July 2013)
Though presentable, my looks had never been those of a “trophy” woman, so I needed to make an impression in other ways. (Diana Athill)
Some people regard brownfield sites as inferior, simply because they are the product of human activity. (NS letter Aug 2013)
Perhaps the worst scenario is being the oldest person in the office. When you don't know what the others are talking about - be it pop culture or the latest hot spot - it's bound to be lonely and embarrassing. boston.com
Get a job with people the same age as you. (yahooanswers)
More here, and links to the rest.
The Rachel Ferguson is amazing for its era, isn't it early 30s? You'd totally think it was 80s management speak. Would've been good for my anti-anachonisms list....
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