The Harvard Sentences are a list of sentences like “Help the woman get back to her feet” and “The birch canoe slid on the smooth planks” intended to test audio technology. They are also aesthetically very interesting, like one-sentence poems. I wondered what else could be done with that format and structure. The real harvard sentences are carefully balanced so as to be good representatives of typical english, but emulating the general style of the sentences is still interesting. So I sat down and wrote about 65 fantasy-themed harvard style sentences. I also added a few more later, and will probably continue to add a few. Here they are:
He undid the hex by reading it thrice backwards.
You should not talk to negative entities.
The witch stirred her cauldron purposefully.
Within the circle we are protected.
Not all creatures choose to be seen.
None who carry that sign shall pass.
The stake sat unused on the table.
She had seen the glimmer of the faerie's wing.
I have been to that glade only once.
You are not ready to go to that lake.
Read the book again, and pay attention to the rats.
The fire burned away all impurities.
A gun can attract unwanted spirits, said the priest.
There is healing energy in the ancient stone.
This land can never be tainted.
All four elements were present on the altar.
I was guided to meet you here.
The bell rung in the empty room.
The house had been haunted for some time
There is a protection on this space, said the old man.
I believe you have the power to fix this.
The spell involved a burning flame.
The salt water was used to remove the imprint.
He discarded the stagnant water and felt refreshed.
The book was written by my grandmother.
Our family has always believed in magic.
He felt a presence in the room.
He read over his diary again after the light flickered.
One must always respect the earth and sky.
He saw a vision when he gazed into the bowl.
She understood what the signs told her.
I want you to know why I gave you that stone.
Her aura was bright and untainted.
To balance the elements he recited a chant.
Truth can be found in all places.
He kept his knowledge secret to avoid scattering his energy.
It served him well to know the legend.
He chanted softly the words she had taught him.
In the dark she could see auras.
You mustn't forget the important teachings.
Walk with the sun to cast the circle.
This athame has never drawn blood.
The chalice is an important symbol.
Certain places are watched by spirits.
Guard yourself lest you forget the way.
Keep alert when feeling afraid.
The blue star is a protective symbol.
There are places one should never go.
There are things you must not lose.
Don't let anyone make you forget to look around.
The table of correspondences is missing an entry.
Speak not the words of the foeman.
The spiders defend this forest from evil.
The ghouls feed on misery, so don't let them hurt you.
“A distraction can be a type of attack”, said the wizard.
Keep a burning flame between you and them.
Don't look at that painting or you'll get wrinkles.
She smudged the space with sage.
Be careful. Someone here is up to no good.
You should be quiet when times are changing.
There might be something you missed here.
Don't be tempted to cross the unsteady bridge.
A moonless night is fearsome to many.
Many lives have been lost to greed.
Ignore the braggart. He hides a terrible secret.
Use the stone to see hidden things.
Everyone hopefully knows by now that surprise pets are not appropriate gifts.
But just in case you were planning to make an exception for fish(Or maybe you were planning on a non-surpise fish), keep in mind that a goldfish is supposed to live decades.
They die early because people don't take care of them.
Properly taking care of them involves a lot of work, and making sure the water has just the right balance of chemicals, and the industry seems to think that's too hard. So the stores just accept that most fish won't reach their natural lifespan.
But you don't have to! Go on an Aquarium forum and see what is really involved. Read the reviews of any product you might want to use, and make sure it's not poison (Even if it says it's safe!).
Just like how birds are sensitive to anything in the air(Do NOT overheat any nonstick Teflon-ish polymer anywhere near them, ever), fish are sensitive to things in the water.
Try a bag of Swedish Fish instead?
He thrusts his fists against the posts,
And still insists he sees the ghosts.
Very short written works are interesting. People can remember them without really trying, they can have a powerful effect, and they can be written totally by accident.
For that one, the extended version is often cited as:
“Amidst the mists and coldest frosts,
stoutest wrists and loudest boasts,
He thrusts his fists against the posts,
And still insists he sees the ghosts.”
Occasionally you'll hear “With barest wrists and stoutest boasts” instead, but other than that, most modern versions seem to follow the general pattern.
You probably know it from the Steven King usage, but before that it appeared in “Donovan's Brain”, and before that, an 1843 book, Practical Elocution by Samuel Niles Sweet.
For some reason, people mention online that the first reference they know of is in “An 1843 book”, but never mention which one, which is mildly annoying. The version there is:
“Amidst the mists he thrusts his fists against the posts, and still insists he sees the ghosts.”
Not quite as poetic as the now-common extended version, but still interesting.
Using Google book search, we learn that it also appears in a slightly later work, around 1853, called “Sanders' Rhetorical, or Union Fifth Reader” as:
“Amidst the mists with angry boasts
He thrusts his fists against the posts
And still insists he sees the ghosts.”
It's listed there among several others, notably:
“Round the rough and ragged rocks the ragged rascal ran”.
Much later, Gaelic Storm would use a similar line,
“Around the ragged rocks, the ragged rascal ran”
in their song “Johnny Jump Up”.
Some people say it's “Rugged”, but it sounds like “Ragged” to me.
Another work, this time from 1908, called “The Canadian Teacher, Volume 13”, Lists it as:
“Amidst the wildest fiercest blasts
he thrusts his fists against the posts
and still insists he sees the ghosts.”
Again, we see it listed among other pronunciation practice excercises, such as
“Request them not to give up the contest without protest”.
And
“The heaviest frosts do not come on the coldest nights”
As for a title, a Straight Dope forum post suggests that it's title is “The Drunkard”, but doesn't give any citations to back that one up. I think he might be full of it, but you never know. It kinda fits, but it's also kinda depressing and I'm not a fan of the whole “Dark reimaginging of a fun show” meme.
However, if that really is the historical context of it, I'd accept that.
“English: Reading and Speech” By Dennis Brooks, from 2015, calls it “He Sees a Ghost”, which might just be a random title he gave it, because he thought it needed a heading. The title doesn't quite seem to fit.
Whatever the title is, if it were to have one, the imagery is certainly powerful, and seems to resonate with people.
In the middle of an icy frost, a man is refusing to back down about what he believes. He can see them with his own eyes even when nobody else can(Or else, why would he need to insist?)
Why is he thrusting his fists? Is there something specific about those posts, or is he just expressing his frustration that nobody believes him?
Do you have a favorite very short work? Maybe even one that isn't one of those ultra-depressing one sentence stories?
He thrusts his fists against the posts,
And still insists he sees the ghosts.
Very short written works are interesting. People can remember them without really trying, they can have a powerful effect, and they can be written totally by accident.
For that one, the extended version is often cited as:
“Amidst the mists and coldest frosts,
stoutest wrists and loudest boasts,
He thrusts his fists against the posts,
And still insists he sees the ghosts.”
Occasionally you'll hear “With barest wrists and stoutest boasts” instead, but other than that, most modern versions seem to follow the general pattern.
You probably know it from the Steven King usage, but before that it appeared in “Donovan's Brain”, and before that, an 1843 book, Practical Elocution by Samuel Niles Sweet.
For some reason, people mention online that the first reference they know of is in “An 1843 book”, but never mention which one, which is mildly annoying. The version there is:
“Amidst the mists he thrusts his fists against the posts, and still insists he sees the ghosts.”
Not quite as poetic as the now-common extended version, but still interesting.
Using Google book search, we learn that it also appears in a slightly later work, around 1853, called “Sanders' Rhetorical, or Union Fifth Reader” as:
“Amidst the mists with angry boasts
He thrusts his fists against the posts
And still insists he sees the ghosts.”
It's listed there among several others, notably:
“Round the rough and ragged rocks the ragged rascal ran”.
Much later, Gaelic Storm would use a similar line,
“Around the ragged rocks, the ragged rascal ran”
in their song “Johnny Jump Up”.
Some people say it's “Rugged”, but it sounds like “Ragged” to me.
Another work, this time from 1908, called “The Canadian Teacher, Volume 13”, Lists it as:
“Amidst the wildest fiercest blasts
he thrusts his fists against the posts
and still insists he sees the ghosts.”
Again, we see it listed among other pronunciation practice excercises, such as
“Request them not to give up the contest without protest”.
And
“The heaviest frosts do not come on the coldest nights”
As for a title, a Straight Dope forum post suggests that it's title is “The Drunkard”, but doesn't give any citations to back that one up. I think he might be full of it, but you never know. It kinda fits, but it's also kinda depressing and I'm not a fan of the whole “Dark reimaginging of a fun show” meme.
However, if that really is the historical context of it, I'd accept that.
“English: Reading and Speech” By Dennis Brooks, from 2015, calls it “He Sees a Ghost”, which might just be a random title he gave it, because he thought it needed a heading. The title doesn't quite seem to fit.
Whatever the title is, if it were to have one, the imagery is certainly powerful, and seems to resonate with people.
In the middle of an icy frost, a man is refusing to back down about what he believes. He can see them with his own eyes even when nobody else can(Or else, why would he need to insist?)
Why is he thrusting his fists? Is there something specific about those posts, or is he just expressing his frustration that nobody believes him?
Do you have a favorite very short work? Maybe even one that isn't one of those ultra-depressing one sentence stories?
[url=https://hubzilla.eternityforest.com/page/eternityforest/research/hethrustshisfists]Page Link[/url]
I'm sure you have seen the XKCD “Now there are 14 competing standards” comic. In programming circles, It is shared more than any other, as far as I can tell.
This does not actually happen much IRL, aside from purposeful vendor lock in.
What really happens is there are three standards, and two products that do their own thing.
Someone makes a new standard, and the two use it, plus one of the existing three becomes obsolete.
The libraries the open source crowd uses to support things just add the new standard, and support all four, forever; it's only 60kb of new code or so anyway.
Third party apps need very little extra work to support all of them. They just use the big all in one library.
Minimalist and proprietary/lock-in based apps continue only supporting one, as they always did, aside from things like Microsoft word, which supports everything.
Look at the vast number of media formats. Players just add em to the list, for a tiny extra cost in disk space, offset by the large savings in more efficient compression.
It doesn't even take that much maintenance, those decoders are written in C and can keep working, unchanged, for years(Although there may be security concerns with so much code, albeit slightly reduced if most of it never runs)
The only time this is an issue is when hardware support is needed. I suspect that will eventually go away as things get more reconfigurable.
Don't make useless new standards of the existing ones are good enough. But if a big company backs a new standard, it may well be the next big thing, and exist happily alongside the 5 other standards for years.