Yes, but it's a specific way of ridiculing something or someone. Lampooning is an art form that requires skill, wisdom and excellent language skills. It generally takes the form of satire, ridiculing the character, behavior, beliefs, etc., of a person, corporation, political party, religion, or other institution or philosophy.
Yes, ridicule, but with the purpose of aggravating the person attacked. Its definition was well put by Dr Johnson in his 1755 Dictionary. "A personal satire; abuse; censure written not to reform but to vex". In a dictatorial society, or among unlawful people, lampoons can lead to the imprisonment or death of the lampooner. Example. If you are a writer living in Mexico City, and you publish a lampoon of the biggest local Drug Lord, making caricatures of his ugly face, and inferring that no stray dog is safe from his amorous intentions, then you had best choose the hymns for your funeral service.
Michael Schumacher turned 46 on Saturday and is currently rehabilitating at his home inLake Geneva, Switzerland. His wife Corinna, son Mick and daughter Gina Maria stay at his side. The question regarding when this F1 Legend will recover is still a huge mystery. However, hearing news like this clearly indicates that he is recovering, even though in an extremely slow manner. Nevertheless, it will certainly encourage Schumacher lovers all over the world. Why call it mystery? Or can I say "is still unknown"? Edited by moderator Jan. 12. Corrected various errors in punctuation.
Yes, "still unknown" would be an improvement on "mystery". "Mystery" suggests that the events are like fiction. The whole paragraph is written in the manner of a gossip section in a second rate newspaper. What we call in the UK a tabloid, or a red-top. I won't pull it to pieces, but it is complete nonsense.
In America that is considered reasonable writing. In our newspapers the actual news sections are written according to standards, but the "opinion" and "gossip" sections are more colloquial. The sports section is even worse. We call them "tabloids" too. Saying that it is a mystery whether an injured person will ever recover would not be considered inappropriate here, even in formal speech or edited writing. A mystery is a question of fact that cannot be answered from the information currently available.
I agree. A mystery is something that can be solved with more information. All the information in Schumacher's case is known. Unless you count not knowing the future. What is unknown is whether he will recover. It is almost certainly an invented story. The Schumachers are not revealing much, but if the story was true then the quotes would be coming directly from them. They understand how much his genuine friends and fans are concerned for him, and I'm sure they would be glad to be able to give good news. I don't think your American Newspapers sink quite as low as some of our European ones.
In many cases, if not most, the missing information can only be acquired by waiting to see what happens in the future. This is obviously true in the realm of medicine. No. The most important piece of information is, "Will he recover? If so, when?" Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Well, duh? Indeed. That information will be acquired at some unknown date in the future. Why do you say that? In the USA it's common, if not standard, for the media to seek and receive medical information from the medical professionals assigned to the case, or their superiors. If a man is in a coma and you ask his wife whether he is going to wake up, and if so when, the answer you get is not going to be as detailed as the one you'd get from a doctor. Not to mention, the wife is going to say, "Yes, he will wake up," because she doesn't want to admit to herself that he may not. The fans will be quite happy if the family tells them that he will recover. If he dies six months from now it will be old news, so they don't have to worry about angry fans saying, "You promised that this would not happen," The best newspapers in the USA and western Europe are of the same caliber. In the USA that would be the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and two or three others. There were once ten, including the Denver Post, the Christian Science Monitor, the Chicago Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Baltimore Sun and one I don't recall. Those papers have not sunk to the level of the tabloids, but they're no longer on the list of the country's "newspapers of record." We rely on the Washington Post for news about the government. The New York Times covers business and finance. The L.A. Times takes care of arts and entertainment. Major events like the killing of Trayvon Martin (I wonder if that sad story even made it across the Pond) and the recent violence in Paris were front page news in every periodical in the country.
Let`s say that you are sitting in a cafe with your friend Charlie, and he leaves without telling you where he is going. If someone then asks you where he has gone,you wouldn't say it was a mystery would you? A mystery isn't just something which is unknown, it is something which is puzzling.
The "Hail Mary" is a traditional prayer among Roman Catholics, asking the Virgin Mary (the mother of Jesus) to intercede in solving a problem or avoiding a difficulty. It is also used by members of some Protestant churches. One common form of this prayer is: "Hail Mary, full of grace; the Lord (originally meaning a ruler or master, now a common name for God in Christianity) is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, for thou hast given birth to the Saviour of our souls." [Prayers often use the ancient grammar of the King James version of the Bible, thus "thee" instead of "you" . . . . "art thou" instead of "are you". . . . "amongst" instead of "among" . . . . "thy" instead of "your" , , , , "thou hast" instead of "you have."] Since this prayer is, basically, a request for supernatural assistance in solving a problem, the phrase "Hail Mary" was adopted as slang in American football, especially by the teams of Catholic Universities. The earliest reference I can find was to a game played by Notre Dame University in the 1930s. The team was losing badly and the game was almost over. So in desperation the quarterback threw an extremely long pass to a team-mate close to the goal. The probability of such a pass being successful is extremely poor, so he prayed as the ball was flying. I don't know if he won the game. So today, a "Hail Mary" is slang for "hoping that an extremely difficult or improbable outcome will occur."
This is by no means a universal opinion. Particularly for those who love science and think it's important to know how things work (such as the members of SciForums), explaining the rainbows makes their colors more interesting. Understanding how eyes work (three different color receptors centered on the frequencies of red, yellow and blue light) makes them even more interesting.
I agree. For example. I didn't know why dogs liked to fetch things. Then I found out that it was because dogs like to play at hunting. That's far more interesting. Also, before dogs have a play fight, they make a kind of bow to each other. It's a signal that the fight isn't in earnest. All breeds of dog do it. Play is very important to dogs.
Wolves behave the same way--wagging their tails, chasing sticks, roughhousing, barking--but they stop when they reach adulthood. The dog is a distinct subspecies of wolf, Canis lupus familiaris, and a major difference between them and wolves is that dogs continue to do those things until the day they die. These are behaviors that endear them to us and cement their role as our closest companions--an important evolutionary advantage in a world ruled by humans. Of course another important difference is that dog brains have shrunk and are smaller than wolf brains. This reduces the amount of protein they need in their diet, which allows them to subsist on a diet with more fruit and vegetables, and less meat than wolves need.
I am aiming to communicate with someone less privileged than your good self , my dear son. good self or goodself, joined? Means what? When to use it?
"Goodself" is not a word. You must write it as two words: "good self." It's a very formal, old-fashioned way of speaking. No one in the USA would ever speak this way. We would say, "less privileged than you." Perhaps in the U.K., there are people who speak so formally. NEVER!
We might use it in the UK, but it would not be said or received seriously. It is over-formal. In similar vein, a mother trying to get her son out of bed, might say: "Time to rise, your Lordship"
Another phrase, quite often used in the UK, is "With the greatest respect........." This introduces an opposing point of view in a formal argument. Is that used in the USA?
