Rather than type up a new response, I’ll just search and copy one I’ve posted before:
This is a point that gets SDMB argued every six months or so. There are varying degrees of uniqueness: a response can be unique within a group (“Susan had a unique answer to our little riddle”) , while not completely without precedent.
So I’ve got no problem with “completely unique”,“absolutely unique” or “totally unique”. “Very unique” is more troublesome, but not invariably ridiculous. F’rinstance:
“Susan, Mikey, and Sam all had interesting, original solutions to the problem, while Michelle offered the very unique answer that the hippo could be caught using 200 remote controlled helicopters.” While all four answers were unique within the group, Michelle’s answer would probably be unique within the entire state… while still not necessarily being unique throughout the history of the world.
I don’t see what’s so uniquely unique about that. “Even” just means divisible by 2. 2 is the only prime number that’s divisible by 2; 3 is the only prime number that’s divisible by 3; 5 is the only prime number that’s divisible by 5; etc.
Pink Floyd’s “Learning to Fly” (lyric site) is a start to finish wall of trite clunky rhyme and meter. It parses like a TV commercial jingle. I love you Dave, really, but whatever junior high school peechee you found this scrawled in was better left in the hallway locker.
You’re right…I haven’t listened to the song in years but I just rechecked and he does sing “kar-ib-dis”. Don’t know why I always heard it as “kar-bi-dis”. Still not a great rhyme with “apprentice”, and as Just Asking points out, over-the-top for rock/pop.
Ah, I missed what you were talking about. It’s not the words you’re questioning, but the pronunciation.
I got thrown because I don’t hear the real words at all. I hear (approximately) “caught between the silver and car age.” I had to look the real lyrics up. Then I really hated the line! Smart assed show off…
Which one? You mean the one about his heart beating right out of his unshaved chest? The lipstick stains on the front side of his left side brain? His fake excuse about his girlfriend having been run over by a crappy purple Scion? Where to start?
Can’t agree with you here. Admittedly, the use of Scylla and Charybdis is slightly pretentious, but the song’s imagery is that of an apprentice rebelling against a master magician. Inclusion of not particularly obscure references from classical fantasy seems appropriate.
I agree. That song was the first time I heard the phrase “between Scylla and Charybdis” (I remember Casey Kasem explaining what it meant during “American Top 40” :)), and I kind of appreciated learning it. Congratulations, Sting, you taught me something!
Me three. I’d bet there are a lot of people that were introduced to the myth via this song. I always kind of giggle when people dis Sting for being pretentious. Can’t it be that he’s just actually very intelligent and his style is a little deeper than most other lyricists?
I love the song Bette Davis Eyes (“pure as New York snow”) except I always shudder at the lines:
She’s precocious and she knows just
What it takes to make a pro blush
A tiny part of my soul curls up and dies every time I hear “precocious/knows just/pro blush.” If they couldn’t come up with something better than that, they should have ditched “precocious” and found something easier to work with.
