“All that glitters is not gold.”
A golden oldie, a cliché of long-standing
If you are looking for the source of the quote, “All that glitters is not gold,” start with Archimedes, then jump to Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, and finally settle on J.R.R Tolkien’s The Hobbit which reverses the saying to “All that is gold does not glitter.”
If you’ve heard an expression like this a thousand times, it’s a cliché. Here’s the point. It has become more than a bit irritating, a “duh” kind of moment, dulled to the point that it has lost its allure.
Oz supposes that we hate cliché because they lack imagination. They become swords that can’t cut, light bulbs grown dim, a rose past its bloom, faded and only fit to be compressed in an old dusty book, occasionally looked at.
The daughter of Oz says it is time to look into that book and bring some back to life. Mind you, not all, but some.
Number one
Plain as the nose on your face, which is not really plain. Sure, it may be an average nose, even ugly, but that is not what is meant. Plain meaning easy to see. Obvious, which most clichés are not. One’s nose is something we all overlook. We could, and should, as Oz’s daughter suggest scrutinize our words a little more carefully.
This leads to another thought that Oz is still percolating in his brain, namely, be curious not judgmental. This we shall however leave for another day, another blog.
Other clichés Oz likes:
Don’t get your knickers in a knot.
Barking up the wrong tree. And anything about dog.
Rocket science spin-offs, because we all like space travel.
You are Blessed, which technically is not a cliche but a blessing, and it’s nice.
Better late than never, because we are all still trying to learn.
Killing me softly, because that is what clichés do. Not to be confused with “You’re killing me Smalls.”
A picture is worth a thousand words, because we are all still trying to cut what we say down to size.
And some he doesn’t:
A rose is a rose, a tautological statement, for sure.
Time will tell, and anything like it.
Cat’s meow, and anything with cats, because cool cats don’t care.
Brain surgery comparisons because we already have rocket science.
The rest is history. Well, it is not history, unless some idiot wrote it down.
When it rains, it pours, which is clearly not true, especially in the Land of Oz where rain is generally welcome until it is time to reap the wheat.
Dressed to kill, which violates the rule of showing not telling.
Don’t judge a book by its cover. Again, not always true some books covers tell us all we need to know. Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason comes to mind.
Good deeds going unpunished, because it only applies to Greek mythology.
Stop
By this time, Oz can hear his daughter say, “Stop, you’re killing me.”
So, I shall.
Leaving Oz 