(May 9, 2013 at 2:00 pm)Violet Lilly Blossom Wrote: Expand your focus from literal 'shit', and turn focus upon a figurative 'the shits'.
Another example of device like this: Taking the piss.
We don't focus upon the literal 'piss', but instead upon a figurative 'the piss'
Isn't English cool?
Well, that's my problem. I have no idea what the figurative meaning of "having the shits" is.
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell