National Network for Equitable Library Service

Wordsmiths unite! This new book is tailor-made for everyone who enjoys the English language. Author Peter Gordon has transformed a formidable collection of adages, pop phrases, advertising slogans and book and song titles into hilariously obfuscated aphorisms he calls "Smart Speak." After all, when it comes to communication, why take the direct approach when a wordy one will do? Verbiage for the Verbose challenges readers to test their knowledge of their mother tongue by unraveling Gordon's verbose verbiage. Consider, for example, the author's take on these familiar sayings: Display to me the legal tender (Show me the money). Do not enumerate one's domestic fowls prior to the end of their incubation period (Don't count your chickens before they are hatched). A prickly-stemmed, pinnate-leaved, showy flower called something else would have the same pleasant fragrance (A rose by any other name would smell as sweet).   Sometimes obscure, always amusing, Verbiage for the Verbose entertainingly illustrates the importance of using concise yet catchy words. After all as author Gordon points out, if Bart Simpson went around saying, "Produce not a bovine, sir", instead of "Don't have a cow, man," would he have become nearly as popular? Would Bob Dylan have hit the pop charts with "Undulating in the Zephyr" instead of "Blowin' in the Wind"?