Nothing to do with nothing, but after looking up monocline (see previous entry) and discovering it was (variously) “an oblique geologic fold” “Double flexure connecting strata at one level with same strata at another level.” or “a local steepening in an otherwise uniform gentle dip.” I decided that Alan Cooper had seen more monoclines than he had defined, and decided to use that word becauase of he had gotten a contextual definition (does Alan Cooper hike? what does our vocabulary reveal about our personal habits? Or am I merely looking in the wrong dictionaries?).
Suddenly I heard in my head the famous line from The Princess Bride “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
And then I had to go look for the quote, since I hate misquoting. Which took me to thinking about what makes a good movie quote. Personally I think it should both remind you of the scene in the movie and stand alone as just good writing.
Thus, this site has acceptible quotes from Princess Bride, including “Thank you so much for bringing up such a painful subject. While you’re at it, why don’t you give me a nice papercut and pour lemon juice on it? ”
and this site is less effective with quotes like “As you wish” and “That’s inconcievable!” — moving if you’ve seen the movie, but meaningless if you haven’t.
Or maybe it’s just the art of knowing how much context to provide. “Inigo: “You seem a decent fellow. I hate to kill you.”
Dread Pirate Roberts: “You seem a decent fellow. I hate to die.” ”
(you kow this was just an excuse to read and quote a buch of Princess Bride, doncha..)