Oftenly

Charles Doyle cdoyle at UGA.EDU
Fri Aug 24 14:29:47 UTC 2007


My favorite perverse parentism is "Do you want a spanking?"

Somewhere in the world there's a masochistic child who doesn't understand the nature of rhetorical questions . . . .

--Charlie
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---- Original message ----
>Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2007 05:32:58 -0700
>From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>
>A few years ago there was an evangelistic billboard campaign around these parts that had one memorable board that, IMHO, transcends creed. In white print on a solid black back:
>
>  "Don't Make Me Come Down There!" --God.
>
>  JL
>
>Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
In ordinary, colloquial speech, I am accustomed to hearing only "I've told you _time and time again_." It's one of those "mother-talk" speech-forms such as, "your head is hard as a rock," "talking to you is like talking to a wall," "if I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times," "don't make me have to come get you," "I thought I told you to clean up this mess," "I'm going to beat you till I can't see you," "can't we have anything nice around here?"
>etc., etc., etc.
>
>Not being a parent, I've never had occasion to use these myself, but
>I've heard these and more all too many times.
>
>-Wilson

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