Exergasia (ex-er-ga’-si-a): Repetition of the same idea, changing either its words, its delivery, or the general treatment it is given. A method for amplification, variation, and explanation. As such, exergasia compares to the progymnasmata exercises (rudimentary exercises intended to prepare students of rhetoric for the creation and performance of complete practice orations).
Tubers. Lugers. and Goobers. Potatos, Handguns, and Peanuts. These are a few of my favorite things. Mary Poppins has a pretty good list: “kettles, warm mittens, packages, sleigh bells, kittens, snowflakes, and silver white winters.” The only favorite that isn’t about freezing her ass off in winter is kittens. She was known to wear a kitten as a neck warmer. She would roll it up in a scarf, and then, tie it around her neck like a sling. The purring kitten would sometimes bother people when Mary was out wandering around in public, wobbling a little bit from the sweetened gin she sipped from her little silver flask concealed in her coat.
She never amassed any savings and was unable to realize her dream of moving to Florida, USA. She was sick of the cold winters and had tried to use her flying umbrella to cross the Atlantic. It was a catastrophe that nearly killed her. She was caught in gale-force winds that crash-landed her on a rocky beach in Scotland. Her “savior” tried to steal her umbrella. She beat hm with her umbrella until he started crying and offered to knit her a sweater. She agreed and stayed for a week while he knit. The finished sweater was beautiful. It had a portrait of Rabbie Burns woven into it—the great Scottish poet who had written a paean to Scotch whiskey that induced millions of people to take up drinking, frequently falling down in the streets of Edinburgh and Glasgow and smaller towns and villages throughout Scotland.
Mary gave up her dream. She landed a job as a nanny, taking care of four disgusting little creatures.The kids would wait outside the betting parlor while Mary went in to squander her meager wages on long shot bets. She hated her job and used her flying umbrella to get away on brief weekend jaunts. Her favorite place to go was Manchester. It was loaded with handsome willing men, who were not very bright. She became pregnant. Given that her employers were highly inbred nobility, they didn’t notice. When she had the baby, Lord and Lady Pungwut didn’t notice it wasn’t theirs. Lady Pungwut exclaimed “Oh my God, I’ve had another one! Let’s call it ‘Mary’ after our wonderful Nanny.” Mary was off the hook!
Mary is 112 and is living in a nursing home in Inverness, where she freezes her ass off every winter. She unsuccessfully tried to patent her flying umbrella. She couldn’t figure out how it works, so she gave up and sold the rights to it to a Chinese company that spcializes in reverse engineering. The company paid her 10,000,000 pounds. Last week she bet 1,000,000 pounds on Rubber Ducky, a long shot. Rubber Ducky came in last.
Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).
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