Showing posts with label devil's dictionary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label devil's dictionary. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Dogs and devils

Harvey is feeling a little better today and he thanks everyone for their kind wishes. Mum says he's certainly barking better.
Because of his back leg problems we've put bits of carpets all over our lovely wooden kitchen floor. The things we do for dogs.
Dog, n. A kind of additional or subsidiary Deity designed to catch the overflow and surplus of the world's worship. This Divine Being in some of his smaller and silkier incarnations, takes, in the affection of Woman, the place to which there is no human male aspirant.
From The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce.
I wouldn't argue with that except to except to query the specification of small and silky; in my experience dogs of every shape and degree of silkiness hold the highest place in Woman's regard.
P.S. I read about the Devil's Dictionary on Russian Wolfhound's blog. I'd never heard of this exceptional little book before. It was first published in 1911, written by a man described as 'a Yankee Oscar Wilde'.
Alliance, n. In international politics, the union of two thieves who have their hands so deeply inserted in each other's pocket that they cannot separately plunder a third.
Immigrant, n. An unenlightened person who thinks one country better than another.