Hi Rowland,

A recently posted article on the JMM website (http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/7107.htm) urges browsers to "Complete these proverbs." Since I was not preaching on Sunday night, I printed the list and spent a few engrossing minutes working through them (during my associate pastor's memorable repeat sermon on the Good Samaritan).

Like the priest in Luke's story, I first noticed that they are not all proverbs. Later, turning to the Good Book (the Oxford English Dictionary), I confirmed what I had of course always believed - that a proverb is apparently derived from so-called Middle English, meaning "a short pithy saying in common and recognised use; a concise sentence, often metaphorical or alliterative in form, held to express some general truth." While the phrase "beginner's luck", for example, may be construed as a short saying, it is hardly pithy; and, although it is concise, since it lacks a verb it is certainly not a sentence. So I passed by on the other side.

Then, like the Levite, I noticed the frequent spelling mistakes and several dubious or plainly incorrect answers. I briefly surmised on the social class and educational attainment of the submitter of the list and, sadly shaking my head, I too passed by on the other side, with pinched nostrils.

But then, like the Samaritan, with large heart and an earnest desire for compassion, I saw the list, had pity on it, went and corrected the errors (absolving sins), pasted the answers immediately after each question (eliminating guilt) and generally took care of everything. I even threw in not two coins but four extra sayings for good measure. Here they are, and if anyone wants to reimburse me in full I will be happy to receive!

Regards,

Identify these common sayings

1. It is fruitless to attempt to indoctrinate a superannuated canine with sapientially innovative manoeuvres. You can't teach an old dog new tricks.

2. Scintillate, scintillate, distant spherical light-emitting celestial body. Twinkle, twinkle little star.

3. Members of an avian species of an identical plumage congregate. Birds of a feather flock together.

4. Surveillance should precede atmospheric perambulation. Look before you leap.

5. Pulchritude possesses sole cutaneous profundity. Beauty is only skin deep.

6. It is fruitless to become lachrymose over precipitantly dispatched lacteal fluid. Don't cry over spilt milk.

7. Freedom from incrustation of grime is contiguous to rectitude of the heart. Cleanliness is next to godliness.

8. The stylus is more potent than the claymore. The pen is mightier than the sword.

9. Eschew the corrective implement and vitiate the errant scion. Spare the rod and spoil the child.

10. The temperature of the aqueous content of an unremittingly ogled saucepan does not attain 100 degrees Celsius. A watched pot never boils.

11. Objects that coruscate with effulgence are not all characterised by a rich yellow-like elemental essence. All that glitters is not gold.

12. Where there are visible vapours having their prevalence in ignited carbonaceous material, there is conflagration. Where there's smoke there's fire.

13. Sorting on the part of mendicants must be interdicted. Beggars can't be choosers.

14. Eleemosynary deeds are intramurally incipient. Charity begins at home.

15. Male cadavers are incapable of yielding entertaining fictions. Dead men tell no tales.

16. Neophyte's serendipity. Beginner's luck.

17. A revolving lithic conglomerate accumulates no congeries of bryophytic flora. A rolling stone gathers no moss.

18. The person presenting the ultimate cachinnation thereby possesses the optimal cachinnation. He who laughs last laughs best.

19. Abstention from any aleatory undertaking precludes a potential escalation of a lucrative nature. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

20. Persons of imbecility divagate in parameter which cherubic entities approach with trepidation. Fools rush in where angels dare to tread.

21. Elementary sartorial techniques initially applied preclude repetitious actions to the squares of three. A stitch in time saves nine.

22. An oversupply of gastronomic artisans renders the consommé‚ unpalatable. Too many cooks spoil the broth.

23. To doubly extinguish avine existence with a solitary lithic missile. To kill two birds with one stone.

24. The incremental movement of eroded sedimentary rock through an antiquarian timepiece is equivalent to the collective diurnal periods of our conscious existence. As the sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.

25. The verdure is perennially more emeraldine on the reverse of the vertical property perimeter marker. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.