"It's kind of sick, yah?"
That's what Professor Wolfgang Mieder, of the University of Vermont, had to say about his over 10,000 publications regarding proverbs.
Proverbs....
"What, exactly, is a proverb? "A concise statement of an apparent truth, which has had, has, or will have currency," he says, adding that it's generally 10 words or less. "You need ready-made formulaic expressions that you can pull out of your drawer, so to speak."
"Proverbs are not universal truths. Indeed, they often contradict each another: Absence may make the heart grow fonder, but out of sight, out of mind. "
Mieder has had this "job" of reasearching and writing about proverbs for 30 years, along with teaching German and Russian. He even gives presentations about his work to places like elementary schools and Rotary Clubs from over 10,000 slides he has made.
"But Mieder is a decisive man. " 'Different strokes for different folks' is my favorite proverb," he says. He traces it back to 1950s African-American culture, noting that a song by Sly & the Family Stone popularized the phrase in the 1960s."
"I would argue it had to grow on American ground, because it doesn't tell you what to do. It says, 'Accept the differences in people,' " Mieder says. "I think it's a truly liberating proverb."
Read about this interesting man and his love for proverbs at CSMonitor.com
Meet the "Proverbial" Scholar à here
