Articulus (ar-tic’-u-lus): Roughly equivalent to “phrase” in English, except that the emphasis is on joining several phrases (or words) successively without any conjunctions (in which case articulus is simply synonymous with the Greek term asyndeton). See also brachylogia.
My dreams were broken, shattered, destroyed, obliterated. All I had hoped for was driving away in a Subaru Outback packed with remnants of our ended love. My electric toothbrush, cowboy boots, fencing foil, wagging tail cat clock were rolling down the driveway to her new happy home. It was Herb’s car, Herb behind wheel. Herb who had assaulted our love. Herby that I had vowed to kill.
I was the model husband. I did what model husbands are supposed to do: sit in my recliner and complain and yell orders. My recliner was my throne and I was King. One of her primary duties was to clean the bathroom. If she missed anything, I made her stand on one foot in the toilet for 15 minutes. she never learned her lesson and I actually enjoyed seeing her stand in the toilet—she was like a beautiful flamingo. Vacuuming and dusting were straightforward, so that left things in good order, unless she missed a spot—a smear of dust. When this happened, I rubbed her nose in it until she sneezed and blew the dust away.
Laundry was no big deal, but cooking was. I picked a recipe every night from her cookbook “What to Feed an Ogre.” It was mostly roadkill. She had to forage for it every day: if I wanted raccoon, she had to drive around until she found one, skinned it, and cooked it according to the cookbook’s recipe. Any deviation from the recipe earned her a threat to have her hand liquified in our blender.
So, as a typical loving husband, I couldn’t fathom why she would ever run off with Herb—a nondescript average man. Or, so I thought. Somehow he had seduced my wife—he probably promised state of the art kitchen appliances, or vacuum cleaner. Maybe he bought her new packs of cleaning rags, or window cleaner. Her faithless abandonment of me has shocked me and made me despondent. Now, I’m going on the hunt for a new woman.
Most men would hit the web or hang out at a bar, but I have plan. There’s a rehab center—“Back to Normal”—right down the street from me. I think I can find a normal woman there to get attached to me. My idea is to wave a spatula at women coming out of the facility. If they seem attracted to it, I will strike, saying nice things and asking them to move in with me. I’ve had no luck yet. Maybe I should wave around a different cooking utensil. Like tongs— their grabbing motion says “Come here baby.”
In the meantime, I’m trying to figure out how to murder Herb without getting caught. I’ve decided to hit him on the back of his head with a baseball and then, pour Clorox down his throat with a funnel. I saw that on an episode of “Columbo.” The guy got caught who did it to his wife because he had a receipt for the Clorox. I won’t be that stupid—I will steal it!
I got caught stealing the Clorox and have to go to court next week. It changed my mind about everything. I have decided to kidnap my wife and keep her as a prisoner until Herb comes looking for her and falls down the basement stairs and is killed. Ha! Ha! Maybe we will eat Herb. Ha! Ha!
Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu)
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