Things which are totally obvious that I somehow missed for large chunks of my life:

[xiphias]

Number Very Big Number in a Practically Infinite List:

The word "game" in the title of the short story "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard E. Conell doesn't mean "something you play"; it means "an animal that you hunt for food or sport."

"The most dangerous game" refers not to "sport hunting people" as a game, but rather, to "people" as "the most dangerous thing to hunt."

I mean, it's obvious. They TALK about it in the story. But nonetheless, I just somehow missed that for decades.

Comments

[yendi]

I'm not sure both aren't correct; Cornell knew he was playing with the language a bit there.

(That said, as Archer has told us, the most dangerous game is jai alai.)

[tceisele.livejournal.com]

What? You mean the most dangerous game isn't this?

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I thought it was the Mesoamerican Ball Game. Or maybe bull-fighting. Or maybe bull-leaping...

[thespian.livejournal.com]

actually, it was meant to imply both; it changes from the one to the other as you realize what is going on. Study guides often include this. You're good.

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

One of the awesome things about English, from a writers point of view, is that not only can a word mean more than one thing, a word can often mean more than one thing *at the same time*.

Joseph Conrad wrote his novels in English, his fourth language if I recall, because of how much easier it was to shade meanings this way.

[mme-hardy.livejournal.com]

This sort of thing happens to me all the time, too.