What are some words that fit together perfectly?
Poe said that “Cellar door” is the single most beautiful phrase in the English language (according to Donnie Darko, anyway). Today I found myself saying “Do you guys want some peppers and apples?” and was struck by how wonderful it felt and sounded to say “peppers and apples.”
Do you know some of these? Care to share?
Edit – Oops, just found this question. Oh well, sorry guys. I’m totally interested in your answers anyway.
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112 Answers
Clomid and Pergonal.
Sturm und Drang.
Toasty and Oat.
@pdworkin lurve for Sturm und Drang.
I have always been partial to Tangor Bringerbinder. It just sort of rolls off the tongue.
gin and tonic
jack and coke
hand and job
milk and cookies
red and head
Fountain Place
Fountain Place is the name of a road that leads to numerous mountain biking trails and a mysterious supposed “community” at the end of the road in eastern El Dorado County, California, near Lake Tahoe (http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?city=Fountain+Place&state=CA&country=us). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_Place,_California The USGS lists it as a “populated place” but no buildings appear visible on Google Earth. Additionally, you can’t get to it because there is a gate at the end of the road that says “Private Property”.
I guess it’s a combination of the fun of mountain biking in the Fountain Place Road area and the mysterious nature of Fountain Place that make me interested in it, but I really like being in that area and I really like the way it sounds. The manor home in my upcoming novel is named “Fountain Place”.
Roller Coaster of lurve (say what)
Hot chocolate with whipped cream. (Did someone just say “hot chocolate with whipped cream?” I’ll have one, please.)
Grilled cheese.
Can you tell I’m trying to diet?
@janbb Pepperoni pizza. sorry :)
LOL donnie darko. I haven’t seen the movie but I can play mad world on piano.
Hemorroids? Proctologist!
@XOIIO Lurve for mad world. It’s on my Ipod.
@aprilsimnel thanks for reminding me of a great song, I’m off to the Amazon MP3 page to find it now. }:^)
Shitty kitty I just used it.
Bratty boy is good, as well.
My boy cat is being a butt right now.
Playing Mad World as I type to get into the theme.
oil paint (yeah that one might only apply to artists)
comfortably numb
lost soul
blue moon
And the poetic words of @eponymoushipster:
Banana Hammock
Just to say, ‘cellar door’ is the single most beautiful phrase in the English language according to J.R.R. Tolkien. Donnie Darko was referencing that, but for whatever reason the script only references him as ‘This famous linguist once said…’. Not sure why.
@Dog tip of the hat
@BhacSsylan probably because if they said “Tolkien”, they’d have to pay his estate or something.
Would that be a Tolken amount?
Jon Hamm.
And the rest of him fits together nice, too!
Weird, I’m watching Donnie Darko for the first time tonight…
Rag water, bitters and blue ruin. Thank you Tom Waits.
Just saw this on Castle:
Shut the Front Door!
(It’s a censored version of another phrase…and is so much fun to say out loud!)
Death and Taxes
Politics and Corruption
Fair and Balanced
Luke and Leia
Hershey’s Kisses
Paper Bag
Brick House
Prescription Medicine
Starry Night
Clorox Bleach
Motor Oil
Leaky Faucet
Pillow Case
Suntan Lotion
Rich and Famous
Movie Star
Ghost Story
Peanut Butter
Cardboard Box
Bottled Water
Sleeping Bag
Thunder and Lightning
Drunk Driving
Cigarette Smoke
Stormy Weather
Son and Daughter, Moon and Stars, Birds and Bees, Fields and Streams.
It was Tolkien and not Poe. It’s beauty, among other phrases are so theoretically because of something called phonoaesthetics. It’s an interesting concept, if you’re into that sort of thing… I like “Sunny Avenue” in the same way I like “cellar door.” But many stops in a phrase like “peppers and apples” can be appealing, too.
leather nun
French maid
shit storm
standard deviate
@FutureMemory Wow, nice! I love your list. It feels delicious to say out loud. All except Ghost Story – I think the “sts” sound and the tongue motion are really awkward.
@all I stand corrected, thank you. Odd that I remembered it as Poe.
I’d like to see an authenticated source on the “cellar door” story. My mother told me about that when I was a young girl, so we’re talking mid-1950s or early 1960s here. She said that an international celebrity (possibly an opera singer, but in any case a woman from a European country) was asked by a reporter during an interview what she thought were the most beautiful words in the English language. (It is important to the story that the person was not a native speaker of English,) Her reply was “cellar door.” How this got turned into an authoritative remark about English instead of one visiting speaker’s opinion or got attributed to both Poe and Tolkien I can’t imagine.
Poe did write about the sound of words in his fascinating essay ‘The Philosophy of Composition,’ wherein he explained how he used the sound and sense of words in “The Raven” to create a feeling of loss and longing, He explained exactly how he arrived at the choice of the word “nevermore” for the mournful refrain and how he built a poem around it. Perhaps popular lore somehow conflated the two stories and this gave us “Quoth the Raven: cellar door.”
Tolkien died in 1973. He could easily have read the same story or magazine article that my mother did in the 1950s or 1960s.
Who the fuck eats peppers and apples?
Tea for two
Arsenic and old lace
Peach Melba
@Jeruba That’s possible. I will say that Tolkien has put it to paper:
English and Welsh
That’s an essay, written in 1963, an address to the University of Oxford. Bottom of page 22: “Most English-speaking people, for instance, will admit that cellar door is
‘beautiful’, especially if dissociated from its sense (and from its spelling).”
So, it is possible he has heard it from elsewhere, but this essay is probably why many people associate it with him.
Also, this wikipedia article has some things to say about the many misattributions, including one which sounds very much like your story. But, this is also wikipedia, so I can’t really be sure.
That’s “Damn Sexy Monkey!”
@simone54 Wow, you made my eyes stream and my stomach hurt. “Today I found myself saying ‘Do you guys want some peppers and apples?’” What a seriously random thing to throw out there; I hadn’t thought about it. Thanks for the laugh!
A patient brought them in from her garden for someone in my office who is away this week. I took charge of splitting them up.
Zero Glass Deductible
Mitigate damages
Sowwy occifer
@O Someone stole my avatar.
deep thoughts
strong coffee
cold beer
@J0E Jeez. I got it from google. Man, is this awkward. Well. One of us will have to go home and change.
I got it from Google also, but I was wearing it first.
Siegfried Roy
Pancakes Frizzer
“Here’s your new grandson.”
@ubersiren Whoops. Completely missed that. Thought he said “It’s been said…”. Sorry about that.
@jonsblond : “Kick Ass” always sounded better to me.
I always liked the phrase “soda can.” Dunno why.
Also, “weary wanderer” has always caught my eye. The alliteration just does it plus the words flow well.
And I’m sure Barry White would agree with me:
Awwwww, yeeeeah!
Rhyme and Reason just for you, tiny :)
Chocolate dipped
Caramel sauce
Lava cake
Wow – this thread is almost 100 strong. Here are some words that go together well, My Michelle:
Does anyone here spontaneously orgasm upon entering cold water?
@Zen nah, it freaks me out. looks like a poached egg gone wrong in the tub.
Um…that’s a number and a letter. ;)
No raining on my parade, tiny! Hmpf. ;-)
100th answer: The two most beautiful words in the English language, according to Woody Allen, are not “I love you,” but rather; “It’s benign.”
Popcorn and butter!
Cheese and crackers,
Sun and wind,
I can’t think of any more…there’s just soo much..=/
“sig figs”
significant figures! learned them in chem today.:)
@amazingchaley ah to be in AP Chem again, good times.
actually not.
my wife was in that class though :D
@amazingchaley GA and welcome! Good one, I can’t believe I forgot about sig figs.
Whatthefluther/SCCrowell
Now that sounds perfect to me…
Thufferin Thuccotash
Putty tat
Mansion and a Yacht
Hunting wabbits
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