Mermaid
This mermaid is enlarged from a tiny pencil drawing in my sketchbook. I often keep a sketchbook handy when I'm wandering by the seashore.
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I have here used a linguistic device that is often used by advertisers. I say: this mermaid is enlarged from a tiny pencil drawing in my sketchbook, and then I say: I often keep a sketchbook handy when I'm wandering by the seashore, and you are intended to infer that I actually saw this mermaid while walking along the seashore and made this little sketch. But then your rational faculty will suggest to you that mermaids do not exist and so I must be telling a lie.
In the world of advertising the claims are superficially more plausible and so you will probably never notice that often no actual claims are made for the effects of the product. But if you wrote to me to say that I had told a manifest lie, and that I never actually saw a mermaid, I shoud say to you that indeed I never claimed I had. I merely made two factually correct and unchallengeable statements, to whit, that this mermaid is indeed a magnified image from one in my sketchbook, and that I do often carry a sketchbook when I happen to be by the sea.
All images are copyright © Martin Dace 2005, 2006: you must contact me for permission if you wish to publish or reproduce my pictures. Permission will usually be granted for web use provided my authorship and copyright is acknowledged and a link back to my site is provided. A link from my website to yours is also a possibility.