Self-referential Statements 3

Nostalgia ain't what it used to be

President Donald Trump's Treasury Secretary used his first senior staff meeting last month to tell his new aides he would not tolerate leaks to the news media, sources familiar with the matter said.

I don't understand anyone who doesn't have empathy. (Wu Ming ‏@twlldun)

The excessive use of hyperbole in modern media is the worst thing to ever happen to humanity. (Dean Burnett ‏@garwboy)

I'm the most hyperbolic person in the world. (Karl Sharro ‏@KarlreMarks)

People who don't know the difference between describing cultural norms and generalizing people are so tiresome. (Brienne of Snarth ‏@femme_esq)

I long for the days when nostalgia wasn't so culturally omnipresent. (Karl Sharro ‏@KarlreMarks)

Latinisms became trendy in Eng with Augustine (eg as a modus operandi which adds gravitas passim to 1's magnum opus, inter alia pace Orwell) (Byzantine Ambassador ‏@byzantinepower)

Tweeting from new age aggressor can be summed up as "thickoes like you just do ad hominem attacks, which disgusts me, you idiot". (@robinince)

I can't stand people who don't finish their (Karl Sharro ‏@KarlreMarks)

Short words are good and old words are best. (Winston Churchill)

Free speech trumps feeling offended.
So you say, you pigeon-toed, fungus-faced lusus naturae!

Reification. Is that, like, a thing? (Sam Leith ‏@questingvole)

BBC sees the Hollande affair as carte blanche to use every passé French cliché and démodé bon mot, en masse in one montage. (‏Alex Andreou ‏@sturdyAlex)

I didn't know what Stockholm syndrome was but the man in the balaclava who broke into my house was kind enough to explain. (@blmayne)

There aren't enough revivals these days. Bring them back! I say. (Dave Roberts ‏@DLequeu)

One day I'll figure out what 'autodidact' means. (@MikeHypercube)

BBC1 news on its veil non-story tonight: "There's growing concern that this is being blown out of proportion." (Lee Jackson ‏@VictorianLondon)

Recently a friend told me that my public persona in general was a bit "negative". Of course, that's bullshit. Like everything else. (@stevenpoole)

Don’t talk to me about freedom of speech! (@RogerQuimbly)

A false analogy is like a cream cake. (AG)

People overuse hyperbole a million times a day. (@PetrosofSparta)

I absolutely ADORE understatement! (Private Eye)

"I prefer to eschew obscurantism" it says here. I'm not sure you're trying hard enough. (sumit paul-choudhury ‏@sumit)

Scotland independence vote would be 'divisive': Downing St. (@AFP)

There are two things I don’t like, prejudice against other cultures, and Dutch people. 

We do not stock this product you are asking for because there is no demand for it.

This message has no subject.
I’m speechless.
I’m not being defensive!

I’m not going to dignify that with a reply!
We just shouldn’t mention trolls!
You make your own luck.

There are no absolute truths.
All generalisations are false.

Metaphors are a dangerous tool in the wrong hands.
The statement on the other side of this card is false.

More here, and links to the rest.

Illogical 3

Ouija boards (Surely "oui-non" boards?)

Whales have breeding grounds and feeding grounds. (They live in the sea.)

It’s always in the last place you look!

I could care less.

set in stone (You set things in concrete, you carve them in stone.)

Temperatures approached 30C. (Temperatures reached 28C.)

PM makes 360deg rotation on cigarette packaging. (You mean 180 degree – 360 degrees takes you back to where you started.)

The total mileage stands at about 4000km.

priceless (There's a price and it's very very high.)

an empty bottle of brandy (an empty brandy bottle)

Uprooting themselves and moving to the other side of the world would be the toughest decision they’d ever have to make. (It would be the toughest thing they’d ever have to do, if they decided to do it.)

"The time is rapidly approaching..." No, it's not. Time passes at the same pace. (@franosch)
Except at the edge of a black hole. (@FastMacsTweet)

including the likes of X, Y and Z (You mean including X, Y and Z, not people like them.)

flammable and inflammable (Both mean "likely to catch fire".)
boned and deboned (Both mean "with the bones removed".)

There's more than one consensus. (Brexiteer)

Ken should fall on his sword and walk. (Andrew Dismore)

15 photos that will convince you that Iceland belongs on another planet.

I think she wore some disguise – such as one of her trademark silk scarves – while driving, so that she would not be recognised. (Queen’s dog trainer Roger Mugford)

I'm undecided because I don't know enough about it but I will be voting 'out'. (BBC News vox pop Perhaps she thinks “undecided” means “ill-informed”.)

We don't cater gay weddings. We serve everyone.

If he was alive today he’d turn in his grave.

Surely your enemy's enemy is, er, you? (@lucyfishwife)

Gold standard dross. (Dross is what’s left over after gold is refined.)

This very comfortable 'hideaway' is located in a sunny 'undiscovered' quiet Mews... (Well, somebody must have discovered it – no point hiding there now.)

Norwich: twinned with Rouen, Koblenz and Novi Sad.

Painted in loose bravura sweeps like the modernism Goya presages. (Laura Cumming, Observer 2015-10-11 And many other examples. He wasn't ahead of his time, we are behind his.)

Fillet of a fenny snake/In the cauldron boil and bake. (Boil and bake? Make up your mind! And you can't bake anything in a cauldron.)

People should produce, instead of passively consuming! (Who will consume their products?)

Indian giver (It was the British who gave and then took back from the Native Americans.)

2001 was groundbreaking, wasn’t it? Yes – at the time! (BBC Breakfast)

Chinese house prices are shrinking. (The market is shrinking as the numbers fall.)

He is one of the only thespians on the planet who possesses a Ph.D. yahoo news (One of the few.)

Gays have enough equality! (Said some bishop.)
It would right an equality imbalance. (The BBC on women in the theatre. Equality would mean 50% men, 50% women.)
Professionally pedicured feet at your fingertips! (TV ad)

three-week anniversary

You rush to the door, frozen in horror.

You could hear a pin drop! (You can only hear a pin land.)

Marketing bull that irritates me "An almost infinite number of possibilities". So not infinite in any way at all, but entirely finite. Grrr! (Brian Lawton ‏@MrBLawton)

build the deep levels of stamina (You build up, dig deep.)

How can there be self-help groups? (LC)

We’d like to introduce our children to a global world. (Head teacher on BBC Breakfast. Unless you teach them that it's flat...)

Next we'll be hearing about how the average Homo Erectus IQ was 150. (Web discussion about Neanderthals – don’t go there.)

fully lined, fully fashioned, fully licensed

It's come to the point where its now almost impossible to turn the clock back. (Eric Pickles, 2013-01-25)

The future is already here.

I pay someone to come and do my DIY for me. (Nick Knowles)

If our lives are more "fast-paced" than ever before, we should have more free time, not less?

deceptively spacious (more spacious than it appears at first sight), deceptively deep (deeper than expected – ie deceptively shallow)

You really need to think about reinstalling some original features. (Lucy Alexander on Homes under the Hammer, June 2012)

The experiment has failed! (It didn’t produce the results we wanted.)

World records won’t be broken, they’ll be shattered into a million pieces. (You can’t do more to a world record than break it.)

More here, and links to the rest.