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Pigs Fly
The phrase "when pigs fly" (alternatively, "pigs might fly") is an adynaton—a figure of speech so hyperbolic that it describes an impossibility. The implication of such a phrase is that the circumstances in question (the adynaton, and the circumstances to which the adynaton is being applied) will never occur. The phrase has been used in various forms since the 1600s as a sarcastic remark. Meaning "When pigs fly" is an adynaton, a way of saying that something will never happen. The phrase is often used for humorous effect, to scoff at over-ambition. There are numerous variations on the theme; when an individual with a reputation for failure finally succeeds, onlookers may sarcastically claim to see a flying pig. ("Hey look! A flying pig!") Other variations on the phrase include "And pigs will fly", this one in retort to an outlandish statement. An example occurs in the film '' The Eagle Has Landed'': an Irish secret agent working for the Nazis replies to a German general speak ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sus Scrofa Avionica
Sus or SUS may refer to: Places *Sus, Lachin, a village *Sus, Pune, India, a neighborhood * Sus, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France, a commune * Susch, Graubünden, Switzerland, a municipality formerly called Süs People * Martin Sus (footballer, born 1989), Czech footballer * Martin Sus (footballer, born 1990), Czech footballer * Stepan Sus (born 1981), Ukrainian Greek Catholic bishop Education * Shanghai University of Sport, China * State University System of Florida, United States Health * Sistema Único de Saúde, Brazil's publicly funded health care system * Stavanger University Hospital (Norwegian: ') in Norway Science and technology * ''Sus'' (genus), the genus containing pigs * Saybolt universal second, a unit of viscosity * Single UNIX Specification, a group of computer standards * Software Update Services, a software updating tool from Microsoft * Stochastic universal sampling * System usability scale, in systems engineering Sport * Club SuS 1896 Bremen, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was published on Saturday 26 March 2016, leaving only the online edition. The newspaper was controlled by Tony O'Reilly's Irish Independent News & Media from 1997 until it was sold to the Russian oligarch and former KGB Officer Alexander Lebedev in 2010. In 2017, Sultan Muhammad Abuljadayel bought a 30% stake in it. The daily edition was named National Newspaper of the Year at the 2004 British Press Awards. The website and mobile app had a combined monthly reach of 19,826,000 in 2021. History 1986 to 1990 Launched in 1986, the first issue of ''The Independent'' was published on 7 October in broadsheet format.Dennis Griffiths (ed.) ''The Encyclopedia of the British Press, 1422–1992'', London & Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1992, p. 330 It was produc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Ruth Plumly Thompson (27 July 1891 – 6 April 1976) was an American writer of children's stories, best known for writing many novels placed in Oz, the fictional land of L. Frank Baum's classic children's novel ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' and its sequels. Life and work An avid reader of Baum's books and a lifelong children's writer, Thompson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. While in high school she sold her first fairy tale to '' St. Nicholas Magazine'' to which she continued contributing, along with ''The Smart Set''. In 1914 she took a job with the Philadelphia ''Public Ledger'', writing a weekly children's column for the newspaper. She had already published her first children's book, ''The Perhappsy Chaps'', and her second, ''The Princess of Cozytown'', was pending publication when William Lee, vice president of Baum's publisher Reilly & Lee, solicited Thompson to continue the Oz series. (Rumors among fans that Thompson was Baum's niece were untrue.) Between ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oz Books
The Oz books form a book series that begins with ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' (1900) and relates the fictional history of the Land of Oz. Oz was created by author L. Frank Baum, who went on to write fourteen full-length Oz books. All of Baum's books are in the public domain in the United States. Even while he was alive, Baum was styled as "the Royal Historian of Oz" in order to emphasize the concept that Oz is an actual place. In his Oz books, Baum created the illusion that characters such as Dorothy and Princess Ozma relayed their adventures in Oz to Baum themselves, by means of a wireless telegraph. Original Oz books by L. Frank Baum Story compilations and other works by Baum In addition to the canonical Oz books, several of Baum's works that are not Oz stories are nevertheless nominally set in the same fictional universe as the Oz books, and include several character crossovers. These are: ''Queen Zixi of Ix'', ''The Magical Monarch of Mo'', ''The Sea Fairies'', ''Sky ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pigasus (literature) , an award given out by James Randi which recognizes paranormal frauds
{{disambiguation ...
Pigasus, a portmanteau of ''pig'' and ''Pegasus'', may refer to: * Pigasus, a character created by Ruth Plumly Thompson in her continuations of the Oz series of books * Pigasus, a personal symbol used by John Steinbeck * Pigasus (politics), the Youth International Party ("Yippie") candidate for the U.S. presidency in 1968 * Pigasus Award The Pigasus Award is the name of an annual tongue-in-cheek award that was presented by noted skeptic James Randi. The award seeks to expose parapsychological, paranormal or psychic frauds that Randi had noted over the previous year. Randi usual ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ad Astra (phrase)
''Ad astra'' is a Latin phrase meaning "to the stars". The phrase has origins with Virgil, who wrote in his ''Aeneid'': "''sic itur ad astra''" ('thus one journeys to the stars') and "''opta ardua pennis astra sequi''" ('desire to pursue the highhard to reachstars on wings'). Another origin is Seneca the Younger, who wrote in ''Hercules'': "''non est ad astra mollis e terris via''" ('there is no easy way from the earth to the stars'). Etymology ''Ad'' is a Latin preposition expressing direction toward in space or time (e.g. ''ad nauseam'', ''ad infinitum'', ''ad hoc'', '' ad libidem'', ''ad valorem'', ''ad hominem''). It is also used as a prefix in Latin word formation. ''Astra'' is the accusative plural form of the Latin word ''astrum'' 'star' (from Ancient Greek ἄστρον ''astron'' 'star', from Proto-Indo-European ''*h₂ster-''). Mottos ''Ad astra'' is used as, or as part of, the motto of many organizations, most prominently, air forces. It has also been adopted ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. (; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer and the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature winner "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception." He has been called "a giant of American letters." During his writing career, he authored 33 books, with one book coauthored alongside Edward Ricketts, including 16 novels, six non-fiction books, and two collections of short stories. He is widely known for the comic novels ''Tortilla Flat'' (1935) and ''Cannery Row'' (1945), the multi-generation epic '' East of Eden'' (1952), and the novellas ''The Red Pony'' (1933) and ''Of Mice and Men'' (1937). The Pulitzer Prize–winning ''The Grapes of Wrath'' (1939) is considered Steinbeck's masterpiece and part of the American literary canon. In the first 75 years after it was published, it sold 14 million copies. Most of Steinbeck's work is set in central California, particularly in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Literature
American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the colonies that preceded it. The American literary tradition thus is part of the broader tradition of English-language literature, but also includes literature of other traditions produced in the United States and in other immigrant languages. Furthermore, a rich tradition of oral storytelling exists amongst Native American tribes. The American Revolutionary Period (1775–1783) is notable for the political writings of Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson. An early novel is William Hill Brown's ''The Power of Sympathy'' published in 1791. Writer and critic John Neal in the early-mid nineteenth century helped advance America's progress toward a unique literature and culture, by criticizing predecessors like Washington Irving for imitating their British counterparts and influencing others like Edgar Allan Poe. Edgar Allan Poe took American p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alice's Adventures In Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic creatures. It is seen as an example of the literary nonsense genre. The artist John Tenniel provided 42 wood-engraved illustrations for the book. It received positive reviews upon release and is now one of the best-known works of Victorian literature; its narrative, structure, characters and imagery have had widespread influence on popular culture and literature, especially in the fantasy genre. It is credited as helping end an era of didacticism in children's literature, inaugurating a new era in which writing for children aimed to "delight or entertain". The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as with children. The titular character Alice shar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ''Through the Looking-Glass'' (1871). He was noted for his facility with word play, logic, and fantasy. His poems ''Jabberwocky'' (1871) and ''The Hunting of the Snark'' (1876) are classified in the genre of literary nonsense. Carroll came from a family of high-church Anglicanism, Anglicans, and developed a long relationship with Christ Church, Oxford, where he lived for most of his life as a scholar and teacher. Alice Liddell, the daughter of Christ Church's dean Henry Liddell, is widely identified as the original inspiration for ''Alice in Wonderland'', though Carroll always denied this. An avid puzzler, Carroll created the word ladder puzzle (which he then called "Doublets"), which he published in his weekly column for ''Vanity Fair ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pantagruel
''The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel'' (french: La vie de Gargantua et de Pantagruel) is a pentalogy of novels written in the 16th century by François Rabelais, telling the adventures of two giants, Gargantua ( , ) and his son Pantagruel ( , ). The work is written in an amusing, extravagant, and satirical vein, features much erudition, vulgarity, and wordplay, and is regularly compared with the works of William Shakespeare and James Joyce. Rabelais was a polyglot, and the work introduced "a great number of new and difficult words ..into the French language". The work was stigmatised as obscene by the censors of the Collège de la Sorbonne, and, within a social climate of increasing religious oppression in a lead up to the French Wars of Religion, it was treated with suspicion, and contemporaries avoided mentioning it.Le Cadet, Nicolas (2009) Marcel De Grève, La réception de Rabelais en Europe du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle', Cahiers de recherches médiévales et humanist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
François Rabelais
François Rabelais ( , , ; born between 1483 and 1494; died 1553) was a French Renaissance writer, physician, Renaissance humanist, monk and Greek scholar. He is primarily known as a writer of satire, of the grotesque, and of bawdy jokes and songs. Ecclesiastical yet anticlerical, Christian yet considered by some as a free thinker, a doctor yet having the image of a '' bon vivant'', the multiple facets of his personality sometimes seem contradictory. Caught up in the religious and political turmoil of the Reformation, Rabelais showed himself to be both sensitive and critical towards the great questions of his time. Subsequently, the views of his life and work have evolved according to the times and currents of thought. An admirer of Erasmus, through parody and satire Rabelais fought for tolerance, peace, an evangelical faith, and a return to the knowledge of ancient Greco-Romans to dispel the "Gothic darkness" that characterized the Middle Ages. He took up the theses of P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
