The rangy paper tiger
John, a rangy paper tiger, toasted ignes fastui and other noir subjects, hermeneutically impelling his friend to join him in quaffing from the diagraphically-named æ bar's rondure-like mugs.
- rangy: 1. Having long slender limbs. 2. Inclined to rove. 3. Providing ample range; roomy.
- paper tiger: One that is seemingly dangerous and powerful but is in fact timid and weak: “They are paper tigers, weak and indecisive” (Frederick Forsyth).
- ignis fatuus: 1. A phosphorescent light that hovers or flits over swampy ground at night, possibly caused by spontaneous combustion of gases emitted by rotting organic matter. Also called friar's lantern, jack-o'-lantern, will-o'-the-wisp, wisp. 2. Something that misleads or deludes; an illusion.
- noir: 1. Of or relating to the film noir genre. 2. A genre of crime literature featuring tough, cynical characters and bleak settings. 3. Suggestive of danger or violence.
- hermeneutic: interpretive; explanatory.
- impel: 1. To urge to action through moral pressure; drive: I was impelled by events to take a stand. 2. To drive forward; propel.
- quaff: tr.v. To drink (a beverage) heartily: quaffed the ale with gusto. intr.v. To drink a liquid heartily: quaffed from the spring. n. A hearty draft of liquid.
- digraph: 1. A pair of letters representing a single speech sound, such as the ph in pheasant or the ea in beat. 2. A single character consisting of two letters run together and representing a single sound, such as Old English æ.
- rondure: A circular or gracefully rounded object.
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A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood. --Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self-Reliance"
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