Re: SURVEY: Scariest Short Sentences in Your ConLangs

--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, "Ph.D." <phil@P...> wrote:
> Tom Chappell wrote:
> >
> > Reputedly the scariest five-word sentence in North
> > American English is
> >
> > "Daddy, I want a pony."
>
> That doesn't seem very scary. The response is "No."
>
> Much scarier is "The IRS is auditing you."
>
> --Ph. D.
Thanks, Remi and Phil.D.
I agree that your sample sentences are pretty scary!
Remi's is a lot like "being sent to Coventry".
(BTW the Xerox Language Guesser said Remi's sentence was Albanian.)

Phil, consult Luke 11 verses 11-12 for comparison.  (I'd rather
recommend some old "Mama" cartoon-strips, but I don't know how to
find them on the web.)  I don't know if you have a child; but, if you
are parent, (or, for some people, an uncle or an aunt or a
godparent), you find that children can change your mind in ways you
hadn't expected.  One thing I experienced myself was that, when my
goddaughter learned "the magic words" ("Please" and "Thank you" for
people whose child-rearing subculture doesn't call them that), they
really do work like magic.

I suppose the words "Daddy, I want a pony" are only scary to persons
who actually might be on-the-fence about whether or not to accede to
this request.  If you maybe-can-afford it and maybe-can't; if your
child might-be-safe and might-not-be; if she (let's face it, this is
the kind of request that comes from daughters, not sons, and to
fathers, not mothers) might-be-responsible, and might-not-be; and if
she has not over-used "the magic words", and uses them with sincerity
this time -- I imagine it could be scary.  (Not to me --- it would be
as scary as "Daddy, I want to fly to Mars.")

Anyway, that's what I've heard.

-----

Of course, "the IRS is auditing you", to me, sounds like
"the Red Cross wants you to donate blood" sounds to a turnip.

-----

Tom H.C. in MI

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