from:
!There's no egg in eggplant nor
 ham in hamburger; neither apple
 nor pine in pineapple.      
 English muffins weren't invented
 in England or French fries in
 France.  Sweetmeats are candies
 while sweetbreads, which aren't
 sweet, are meat.      
 We take English for granted.  But
 if we explore its paradoxes, we
 find that quicksand can work
 slowly, boxing rings are square,
 and a guinea pig is neither from
 Guinea nor is it a pig.      
 And why is it that writers write but
 fingers don't fing, grocers don't
 groce and hammers don't ham ?   If
 the plural of tooth is teeth, why
 isn't the plural of booth, beeth ?
 One goose, two geese.  So one
 moose, two meese?  One index,
 two indices.      
 If a vegetarian eats vegetables,
 what does a humanitarian eat ?
 Sometimes I think all the English
 speakers should be committed to
 an asylum for the verbally insane.
 In what other language do people recite
 at a play and play at a recital ?
 Ship by truck and send cargo by
 ship ?   Have noses that run and feet
 that smell ?   Park on driveways and
 drive on parkways ?      
 How can a slim chance and a fat
 chance be the same, while a wise
 man and a wise guy are opposites ?
 How can overlook and oversee be
 opposites, while quite a lot and
 quite a few are alike ?   How can the
 weather be hot as hell on one day
 and cold as hell another ?      
 You have to marvel at the unique
 lunacy of a language in which your
 house can burn up as it burns
 down, in which you fill in a form
 by filling it out, and in which an
 alarm clock goes off by going on.      
 People, not computers invented
 English, and it reflects the
 creativity of the human race
 (which, of course, is not a race at
 all).      
 That is why, when the stars are
 out, they are visible, but when the
 lights are out, they are invisible.
 And why, when I wind up my watch,
 I start it, but when I wind up this
 essay, I end it !