Paroemia (pa-ri’-mi-a): One of several terms describing short, pithy sayings. Others include adage, apothegm, gnome, maxim, proverb, and sententia.
“Deep is deep, but steep is steeper.”
This is another worthless saying from “Bowling Ball Blues.” Even worse: “If Emanuel Kant, nobody can.” One must struggle to find a context where it applies. Maybe that’s its point. Who knows? How about: “Every bloated wallet tells a story.” What? Is this is a far-fetched allusion to “Every picture tells a story,” one the most trite sayings in the history of humanity, first discovered inscribed on Poptech-to-Copwhap’s 2,000 year old sarcophagus in Egypt in 1842. It was determined to be the opening line from a tutorial on hieroglyphics dating to 2,500 BCE.
“Bowling Ball Blues” title comes from the saying “Bowling alone is better than staying home.”Iit is part of a paen to bowling permeating the book:
- Let the good times bowl.
- Spare the strike spoil the child.
- Wisdom rolls like a bowling ball down life’s alley.
- A seven-ten split is like a bad divorce.
- Don’t spare your strikes.
- 300 isn’t everything.
- A hook is a curve with consequences.
- Your ball is not your all.
- Odor-eaters in my bowling shoes make me happy.
- Lofting the ball dents your soul.
- If I was a pin, I’d fall for you.
- I have more than two balls.
- Spare me the resin,
One must work hard to find an apt moment to employ any one of the above with any kind of relevance to the human condition, unless of course, one wants to risk ridicule and expulsion from polite society. For example, can you imagine saying “Let’s let the good times bowl” as you take to the dance floor with your partner? I can see the potential aptness of “A hook is a curve with consequences” to baiting a fishing hook. That does not redeem the whole lot of “Bowling Ball Blues” smarmy anthology.
But, given they are directed toward a rare sensibility (the love of bowling) perhaps they’re not as terrible as one would imagine at first. maybe they speak to the alienating effect of rare desires and the shrunken community they motivate, to the exclusion of other communities. This quality of exclusive identifications can lead to smugness and an ethic of superiority, and in interactions, an air of incoherence. For example, if a gamer says to a seducee: “I got some Easter eggs for you baby,” what does it mean?
Here, we’re verging on jargon’s job.
So, let’s end it here with the biggest bullshit saying of all time: “Love is s more than a four letter word.” Any “thing” is different from a word, this does not make it “more.” So, as I check out I leave you with this: “Broccoli is more than an 8-letter word,” so, suck it up Bozo.
The Daily Trope 