Me: "What's so funny?"
CM: "I love your cheerios!"
Me: "What, no, don't eat those! I can't even remember how old they are! They need to be thrown out."
CM: "I didn't eat them."
He came over and showed me the box of Cheerios.
CM: "What a succinct, catchy slogan! [in his booming theatrical voice] Great taste helps make lowering cholesterol a non-challenge!"
Me: [laughing]
CM: "Doesn't that just make you want to repeat the slogan to all your friends?" [turning the box around]
CM: "They decided this catchphrase is so effective that they want to emphasize it. Splitting a dessert: non-challenge! Shooting hoops: non-challenge!"
I think we should all use this to praise people in the future. Some example situations:
"Do I look good in this outfit?"
"Looking at you is a non-challenge!"
"Do you still love me?"
"Being with you is a non-challenge!"
etc.
I am reminded of the hackish sense of "non-trivial", and surprised to see a similar construction in mainstream advertising.
ReplyDeletePerhaps non-local negations are non-trivial, but hyphenation makes them a non-challenge (he opined non-chalantly).
laughing at this blog post was a non-challenge!
ReplyDeleteThe Chinese already says this at the tip of the tongue.
ReplyDeleteMay yo wen ti.
"没问题“ is "No problem", which is very different from "That's a non-challenge".
ReplyDeleteReading your blog is a non-challenge!
ReplyDeleteIt depends.
ReplyDeleteOn whether one considers a problem a challenge.
On whether one is playing with words.
"Do you love me?"
"No problem."
"That's not a problem."
"That's a non challenge."
These do not appear to be "very different."