Survey Concerning Similes
Responding to comments:
George: I am a bit confused, are you saying that the two sentences I asked about where not similes, or were you saying that my statement "as happy as a clam" is not a simile, or were you saying all of the above were not similes.
If you are commenting about the two sentences in "the official blog entry" I agree, but if you were talking about my title of my blog. I say you are very wrong indeed. I will attempt to take a survey to see if the rest of my blog-reading world agrees with me.
Attention all blog readers! I would like to know if you think "as happy as a clam" is a simile or not. Please take the time to leave a comment with the words "Yes, Simile" or "Not Simile" expressing your opinion. After I collect the results, I will post the information in my next blog entry for all to see. Remember, the more people vote, the more accurate this survey will be. Thank you one and all for your time.
Official blog entry:
So today is my last Friday in Savannakhet, Laos. I teach on Monday and Tuesday, and then I leave Laos on Thursday afternoon. When I get to Mukdahan, (on the other side of the river) I will board a bus going to Bangkok. I will travel overnight and arrive early in the morning (I assume about 6:00 AM) I think I will be meeting Bethany at the bus station and then we will go to the airport together, get on the plane, and fly to China. Then it is three weeks teaching there and a flight home on Aug. 8th.
Tonight for supper I ate rice and a fried egg and some dried meat (aka jerky) a very good meal. I just thought I might mention that Ter fried the dried meat before serving it to me. Have you ever thought of frying up jerky. It was very good.
THE ROAD
A short story by Luke Storer
Dedicated to Kayla Storer
Once upon a time there was a road. This road was located in a kingdom not so far away, but still too far to go by tuk tuk or even by bus. It was not a nice paved road, but a half-eroded (okay actually three quarters would be more accurate) road that was very uneven and full of potholes. Every day it rained and the water formed rivers that flowed down the road and lakes inside the large potholes. All the water added to the road's problem. Also, every day a large, heavy truck (weighing at least the weight of three medium-sized elephants) would drive down the road and this made the road fall apart even more.
Fortunately, little magic gnomes would come and fill in all the holes with gravel while no one was looking. Somehow they managed to do this in broad daylight instead of waiting for night. The way they decided when to put gravel on the road was based on a complicated equation based on the square root of PI times the quadratic equation of the month of January. (It was all very complicated and several buildings full of math-gnomes worked for hours on end figuring out a calendar for when the road-gnomes were supposed to work next… but that is not part of this story) The gravel made the road look nice, but was not very helpful for the poor common peasants who rode motorbikes around the kingdom. The gravel was temporarily helpful for stable vehicles on four wheels, but for two wheeled motorbikes, all the gravel did was make it more dangerous to drive. Their wheels would catch in the loose gravel and they would nearly be thrown onto the ground. Most often, despite the dangerous conditions there were no accidents, but every once in a while someone would get hurt.
After the old king died, his cousin, (twice removed on his mother's side and five times removed on his father's side) was made king because several decades ago when they were both in elementary school the king (at that time prince) pinky swore that if his cousin could climb to the top of the castle and tie a red ribbon to the weather vane on the highest point, he would make a decree that his cousin would become king after him. His cousin succeeded, and to this day there is a red ribbon on top of the castle because no one has been brave enough to go and remove it.
This cousin, became a very wise and kind king. He used his wealth and power to give all of his peasants flying carpets for trasportation. As a result, they no longer used their motorbikes and didn't need to worry about loose gravel, potholes, erosion, or even being sept away in the river when it rained. Everyone was happy and lived long happy lives because they didn't receive horrible injuries from the dangerous road.
~The End~
George: I am a bit confused, are you saying that the two sentences I asked about where not similes, or were you saying that my statement "as happy as a clam" is not a simile, or were you saying all of the above were not similes.
If you are commenting about the two sentences in "the official blog entry" I agree, but if you were talking about my title of my blog. I say you are very wrong indeed. I will attempt to take a survey to see if the rest of my blog-reading world agrees with me.
Attention all blog readers! I would like to know if you think "as happy as a clam" is a simile or not. Please take the time to leave a comment with the words "Yes, Simile" or "Not Simile" expressing your opinion. After I collect the results, I will post the information in my next blog entry for all to see. Remember, the more people vote, the more accurate this survey will be. Thank you one and all for your time.
Official blog entry:
So today is my last Friday in Savannakhet, Laos. I teach on Monday and Tuesday, and then I leave Laos on Thursday afternoon. When I get to Mukdahan, (on the other side of the river) I will board a bus going to Bangkok. I will travel overnight and arrive early in the morning (I assume about 6:00 AM) I think I will be meeting Bethany at the bus station and then we will go to the airport together, get on the plane, and fly to China. Then it is three weeks teaching there and a flight home on Aug. 8th.
Tonight for supper I ate rice and a fried egg and some dried meat (aka jerky) a very good meal. I just thought I might mention that Ter fried the dried meat before serving it to me. Have you ever thought of frying up jerky. It was very good.
THE ROAD
A short story by Luke Storer
Dedicated to Kayla Storer
Once upon a time there was a road. This road was located in a kingdom not so far away, but still too far to go by tuk tuk or even by bus. It was not a nice paved road, but a half-eroded (okay actually three quarters would be more accurate) road that was very uneven and full of potholes. Every day it rained and the water formed rivers that flowed down the road and lakes inside the large potholes. All the water added to the road's problem. Also, every day a large, heavy truck (weighing at least the weight of three medium-sized elephants) would drive down the road and this made the road fall apart even more.
Fortunately, little magic gnomes would come and fill in all the holes with gravel while no one was looking. Somehow they managed to do this in broad daylight instead of waiting for night. The way they decided when to put gravel on the road was based on a complicated equation based on the square root of PI times the quadratic equation of the month of January. (It was all very complicated and several buildings full of math-gnomes worked for hours on end figuring out a calendar for when the road-gnomes were supposed to work next… but that is not part of this story) The gravel made the road look nice, but was not very helpful for the poor common peasants who rode motorbikes around the kingdom. The gravel was temporarily helpful for stable vehicles on four wheels, but for two wheeled motorbikes, all the gravel did was make it more dangerous to drive. Their wheels would catch in the loose gravel and they would nearly be thrown onto the ground. Most often, despite the dangerous conditions there were no accidents, but every once in a while someone would get hurt.
After the old king died, his cousin, (twice removed on his mother's side and five times removed on his father's side) was made king because several decades ago when they were both in elementary school the king (at that time prince) pinky swore that if his cousin could climb to the top of the castle and tie a red ribbon to the weather vane on the highest point, he would make a decree that his cousin would become king after him. His cousin succeeded, and to this day there is a red ribbon on top of the castle because no one has been brave enough to go and remove it.
This cousin, became a very wise and kind king. He used his wealth and power to give all of his peasants flying carpets for trasportation. As a result, they no longer used their motorbikes and didn't need to worry about loose gravel, potholes, erosion, or even being sept away in the river when it rained. Everyone was happy and lived long happy lives because they didn't receive horrible injuries from the dangerous road.
~The End~
4 Comments:
Oerg, now I'm confused.
Encarta: Simile, specific comparison by means of the words “like” or “as” between two kinds of ideas or objects. Examples of the simile are contained in the sentence “Christianity shone like a beacon in the black night of paganism” and in the line by the English poet William Wordsworth: “But, like a thirsty wind, to roam about.”
What a grand story.
By
Anonymous, at 8:33 AM
P.S. But I'm pretty sure that saying "I am as happy as you are" is not a simile.
By
Anonymous, at 8:33 AM
Well, I have finally done it! I have officially caught up with reading your blog. I have spent an entire week's lunch breaks devoted to this task. It was most enjoyable and I am upset that I don't feel comfortable commenting on all of your wonderful posts because they would be out of date. So I will just jump back into it here.
Happy as a Clam - Yes, a Simile.
And many online dictionaries agree with me. Just search ("happy as a clam" simile) on Google.
Why is it a Simile. In all of the definitions of a "simile" There is reference to three criteria.
1. You must compare two items (things, ideas etc..)
2. The items must be disimilar to each other.
3. The words "like" or "as" are used most often to link the two.
Clams are things, happy is an idea.
They are unlike each other.
You are using "as" and comparing yourself to the Clam.
By
Micah and Kim Storer, at 12:07 PM
n : a figure of speech that expresses a resemblance between things of different kinds (usually formed with `like' or `as')
I believe one must know that "CLAMS" can be "happy" in order to consider this as a simile.
Perhaps in some countries CLAMS are KNOWN to be HAPPY. Then, although there is a cultural barrier between those that know of clam's happiness & those that don't, there in that particular culture, the expression is a simile.
So, can it be known that clams are happy?
Once that is known, the simile can be used by any cross-cultural student and their friends and acquaintances.
- dopad
By
Anonymous, at 12:11 PM
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