“I can’t say enough good things about this person”.
From the “he’s an extraordinary man” file, in this case specifically for a letter of recommendation for someone you’re trying to unload on some other hapless employer. I don’t recall the source but I didn’t invent it.
“I thought I was going to seize the day… but the day seized me instead.”
Jon looking very miserable in Garfield in Ottawa Citizen Nov. 12, 2004
“Three consecutive years in a row”
Commentator on TSN during the World Junior Gold Medal hockey game between Canada and Sweden Jan. 4, 1993
“The wheels have fallen apart with their momentum”
Announcer on a Minnesota North Stars game on TSN, March 3, 1992
“When fortune empties her chamberpot on your head, smile – and say ‘we are going to have a summer shower.’”
Sir John A. Macdonald, quoted by Dave Ryan in The Western Standard May 3, 2004
“I shall waste no time reading your book.”
I do not recall the source of this marvellous veiled insult but alas I did not invent it.
“I highly recommend the white wine… because it won’t stain as bad if I spill it on you…”
“Your resume says you have experience serving wine.”
“Did I mention it was a bad experience?”
Two characters in "Tina’s Groove" comic strip in Ottawa Citizen January 14, 2004
“And if any other document is henceforth produced which was made heretofore and which in any kind of way seems to gainsay what is here established, that document shall be cast to mice to gnaw or into the fire to be burned, and he who produces it, whatever his rank, shall be regarded as the sweepings of ashes and confounded with the most ignominious shame and with one accord shunned by all the men who are nearby.”
King Canute, to the monks of Canterbury as part of “The Endowment of a Monastery, 1023” in William L. Sachse English History in the Making