Upcoming seminars:
I'm planning to conduct cut-down classes on Easy Humor and Humorous Word Play Saturday, Sep. 24, at the Colorado Harvest Moon Festival (http://www.boulderdance.org/moonfestival/).
I'll be presenting the class "Belief" Oct. 8 at the Unitarian Universalist Association Mountain Desert District Annual Conference (http://www.mdduua.org/). It is in the form of a worship service and deals with Unitarian history: The rejection of any creed by the Western Conference, but the approval of a statement of "Things Commonly Believed."
Example of reforming a cliche
"Do what you love, and the money will follow."
Maybe not.
But do what you love and the joy will continue.
This is a substitution into a cliche (reforming the cliche). Note that
"the money will follow" and "the joy will continue" have the same meter,
two amphibrachs.
Reforming a cliche involves substituting words or sounds in it. Here's an example of reforming a mother's injunction:
"It is better to be safe than happy."
Any word can be substituted, in this case "happy" for "sorry," but they are closer than just arbitrary. They are slant homonyms, having the same meter (trochee) and a rhyme on the final, unstressed syllable.
Here's a cute example of antithesis:
"I don't want people to be like I am; I want them not to be like they are."
I was paraphrasing what a woman seemed to be saying.
