lips of his ear

[Ladyazh]

We just had argument major eith my co-worker about a phrase he learned in his college English class. It was in a book something about 'watchmaster fixed the watch and put it to the lips of his ear'?????????
I think it is totally not creative and rather silly and bit bizzare. He thinks it is a great way of writing. What do you think about 'lips of his ear'??? Anymore examples of such 'creations'?

 

[SantaMufasa]

Obviously, the author thought that s/he was using clever metaphor.

As for other metaphorical creations:

"...the borders of my mind..."

"...the kiss of the breeze upon her face..."

"...the wretching of the metal as the cars crashed into one another..."

et cetera

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I can provide you with low-cost, remote Database Administration services: see our website and contact me via www.dasages.com]

 

[Gooser]

The rings of Uranus?

--Gooser

 

[SantaMufasa]

Gooser, I'll have you know that I shower daily, so you cannot be talking about me.

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I can provide you with low-cost, remote Database Administration services: see our website and contact me via www.dasages.com]

 

[Ladyazh]

Dave,
all of yours are actually don't give me creeps like that one I started with. Maybe because you shower daily

 

[SantaMufasa]

Ladyazh,

"lips of his ear" gives you the creeps, but Gooser's "rings of Uranus" doesn't?...I'm amazed.

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I can provide you with low-cost, remote Database Administration services: see our website and contact me via www.dasages.com]

 

[Ladyazh]

Sorry, somehow I have no feelings or associations when I hear "rings of Uranus" should I have any?

 

[SantaMufasa]

To have those "special feelings" about "the rings of Uranus", it requires growing up as a geeky, immature guy in an American high school that smirked at his buddies every time the science teacher said anything about Uranus. (Plus, part of the "loss in translation" could derive from the fact that in the Ukraine, people probably don't pronounce "Uranus" as "Yer anus" as they tend to do here in the U.S.)

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I can provide you with low-cost, remote Database Administration services: see our website and contact me via www.dasages.com]

 

[SF0751]

[bevis and butthead mode]
heh heh heh ... he said Uranus ... heh heh heh
[/bevis]

Susan
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls, and looks like work." - Thomas A. Edison

 

[Stella740pl]

SantaMufasa,

Are you confusing Ladyazh with me, or is she also known to be from Ukraine?

in the Ukraine, people probably don't pronounce "Uranus" as "Yer anus" as they tend to do here in the U.S.
You are right about this one. The planet is called something to this effect: oo-rUn.

 

[SantaMufasa]

Stella, I could never confuse you with anyone...you are unique!

Ladyazh is from beautiful Odessa.



Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I can provide you with low-cost, remote Database Administration services: see our website and contact me via www.dasages.com]

 

[Ladyazh]

You people are suppose to be talking about 'lips of ear' not 'origin from'. I do not like my past mentioned in public. My lips are sealed (of my mouth).

 

[2ffat]

Wouldn't that be, "the wine portals of my mouth are sealed?"


James P. Cottingham
-----------------------------------------
^{I'm number 1,229!
I'm number 1,229!}

 

[Ladyazh]

Ah! Another one!!!!!! Wine portals??? It is as bad as lips of the ear - i didn't thnk it was possible. Thanks 2ffat I am going back under the rock. I feel stoned (to death - not what you thought).

 

[donbott]

I've always hated " Picture with your mind's eye" It seems to be either too overly redundant, an oxymoranic dichatomy, or both. Or something else. I think I'm sure that I hate it.

DonBott

President
Omnipitence,Ltd.

 

[Stella740pl]

Ladyazh is from beautiful Odessa.
Really? I've been there at the wonderful age of 4 or 5.

I do not like my past mentioned in public.
But probably you did mention it somewhere if it got out?

You people are suppose to be talking about 'lips of ear'
Sorry, this topic didn't touch me that much at first, but I decided to Google anyway. It appears that it is not a sample of a "great way of writing", but an anatomical term.

Among the references I found there are excerpts like the ones below.

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4311206.html

[b][COLOR=navy]FreePatentsOnLine[/color]

“Hearing aid ear mold with improved discrimination”
United States Patent 4311206 [/b]

...Referring now to FIG. 5, there is shown in cross-section one embodiment of this invention, namely, the ear mold indicated generally by the numeral 18. This has a body 42 which is shown schematically, but which would be custom molded to the contour of the ear of the user so that it will fit naturally and comfortably into the exterior auditory canal of the ear and will be held in place by the outer [u]lips of the ear[/u]. Such ear molds are conventional, and this ear mold would be molded in a substantially similar manner, although, as will be explained, it must be constructed with an internal volume or chamber 54, which occupies a substantial or major portion of the internal volume of the ear mold.

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/109885423/ABSTRACT

[b][COLOR=navy]Wiley InterScience[/color]

The sound-transmitting apparatus in necturus
H. D. Reed
[i]Zoological Laboratory, Cornell University[/i][/b]

…adult strengthens the view that the [u]lips of the ear[/u] capsule do not fuse with the fenestral plate and contribute nothing to ...

http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/histology/word/2003//Ear.doc

[b]THE ANATOMY OF THE EAR
Part II: Histology 
Dr. Art Dalley[/b]

...
[b]*[/b]   at the acute angle formed by the junction of the vestibular and spiral membranes is a dense tissue layer covered by a tall epithelium, the spiral limbus, which extends peripherally as two lips lying on either side of the internal spiral sulcus:
   [b]·[/b] a [b]tympanic lip[/b], which extends along the spiral membrane to the spiral organ
   [b]·[/b] a [b]vestibular lip[/b], to which the tectorial membrane (which overlies the spiral organ) is attached.
...

So it doesn't look like it is a "kiss of the breeze upon her face" kind of metaphorical creation.

 

[AnotherHiggins]

If you think of some of the other definitions of "lip" (3 a : a fleshy edge or margin (as of a wound); 4 a : the edge of a hollow vessel or cavity b : a projecting edge....) then it makes logical sense to describe that part of the ear this way.

Granted, it sounds a bit 'funny' to me, but it isn't offensively stupid.

[tt]_____
[blue]-John[/blue][/tt]
[tab][red]The plural of anecdote is not data[/red]

Help us help you. Please read FAQ181-2886 before posting.

 

[Ladyazh]

So impressive!
College Professor teaching it as a methaphora when as a matter a fact it is not? I felt something was wrong with this 'saying'

Charles Simic 1938

Watch Repair

it's ending like this:

We raise it to it
To the lips
Of the nearest
Ear

Now after we've learned that
Lips of the ear do not contribute to the hearing the question is was Charles Simic using it as a methaphor?

 

[Ladyazh]

In Watch Repair Simic chooses synaesthesia to end a poem with the strange blending of the sensations-confusing mouth and ear.

I actually read it in that book just now. So this bizzare has a name synaesthesia !!!!!! Have we learned anything?

 

[Stella740pl]

Good find. Impressive poem. For those who wants to read the whole thing, here it is:

http://thepoemoftheweek.blogspot.com/2006/05/poem-of-week-5152006-watch-repair_15.html

College Professor teaching it as a methaphora when as a matter a fact it is not? I felt something was wrong with this 'saying'
...
Lips of the ear do not contribute to the hearing the question is was Charles Simic using it as a methaphor?

Nothing wrong with this. A professor of literature may very well not know that this is an anatomical term, but he/she sure read the poem.

On the other hand, Charles Simic may have known that the "lips of the ear" is a term, or heard it, and found it to be poetic - so he used as a poetical image. Nothing wrong with this, too.

So, knowing that, we may say that the expression in question can be used as both, an anatomical term and a metaphor.
Isn't it note-worthy?
How many more scientific or technical terms do you know that can be also used in a good poetry? (But I am absolutely sure more of them do exist. I seem to recall reading a poem about the theory of relativity.)