You Speak a Little Nahuatl Every Day

chipotl = chipotle
ahuacatl = avocado
coyotl = coyote
tomatl = tomato
xocolatl = chocolate (remember x is pronounced "ch")
plus all the place names in Mexico like Popocapetl and Tlaxcala
(Holy Toluca!)

These words came from the language of the Aztecs (Nahuatl) to Spanish as the
Conquistadores used their words for the things they found in  New Spain.
and then from Spanish to English.

I also find it hilarious that they had their own expressions and memes,
(according to this great website on words borrowed from Nahuatl
http://www.kith.org/logos/words/lower2/qquetzal.html

"ayoppa in piltihua, ayoppa in tlacatihua" means precisely: YOLO (you live only once)

that's a laughing Aztec

blackguard = blaggard = blagger

The word is blackguard (pronounced blaggard) and means rogue, villain, or dodgy character.
The term seems to date from the 1500s but became used more frequently in literature in the 1800s.

Sometimes spelled as it sounds blaggard
or just blagger, both of which are non-standard spellings.

Most likely originating in the "brigade" of scullions, kitchen knaves and shoe shine boys who roved
the streets making a little money on the side in unscrupulous ways. The term blackguard was eventually applied to the criminal class.

Simile vs Metaphor

"I drew in great lungfuls of biting air, blowing it out again in little silver trumpets of condensation."
(metaphor)

"Tendrils of raw fog floated up from the ice like agonized spirits departing their bodies"
(simile)

"The cold air was a hazy writhing mist."
(metaphor)

"Up and down the long gallery I flew, the silver blades of my skates making the sad scraping sound of a butcher's knife being sharpened energetically on stone."
(that's  imagery, --except with sound)

from I Am Half-Sick of Shadows  by Alan Bradley

2nd photo from tuckamoredew dot wordpress

Extracts from "archy interviews a pharaoh"

yes i am sad
says the majestic mackerel
i am as sad
as the song
of a soudanese jackal
who is wailing for the blood red
moon he cannot reach and rip
.......

on what are you brooding
with such a wistful
wishfulness
there in the silences
confide in me
my imperial pretzel
says i
............

my little pest
says he
you must be respectful
in the presence
of a mighty desolation
little archy
forty centuries of thirst
look down upon you

i am as dry as the heart
of a sand storm
at high noon in hell
i have been lying here
and there
for four thousand years
with silicon in my esophagus
as gravel in my gizzard
thinking
thinking
thinking
of beer

By Don Marquis, in "archy and mehitabel," 1927.   
When you remember this was written during Prohibition in the US, the references to lack of drink become funnier.  Don Marquis said “Drinking used to be a mighty commonplace matter; but Prohibition has brought a smack of adventure into it that makes it really enjoyable.”

"In other words...their fundamental design flaws are completely hidden by their superficial design flaws"

from "So Long and Thanks For All the Fish"
by Douglas Adams

Extract from "Paul Bunyan"

He rode through the woods on a big blue ox,
He had fists as hard as choppin' blocks,
Five hundred pounds and nine feet tall . . . that's Paul.

Talk about workin', when he swung his axe
You could hear it ring for a mile and half.
Then he'd yell "Timber!" and down she'd fall . . . for Paul

..................

But the next time you hear a "Timber!" yell
That sound like it's comin' from the pits of hell,
Then a weird and devilish ghostly wail
Like somebody choppin' on the devil's tail,
Then a shout, a call, a crash, a fall--
That ain't no mortal man at all . . . that's Paul!

by Shel Silverstein

Extracts from "A Legend of Paul Bunyan" Paul S Bourinot

He came,
striding
over the mountain,
the moon slung on  his back,
like a pack,
a great pine
stuck on his shoulder
swayed as he walked,
as he talked
to his blue ox
Babe;
.....
with one step
he was in the next valley
dragging the moon after,
the stars
tangled,
spangled
in the branches of the great pine.

And as he left,
he whistled in the dark
like a far-off train
....
and then, the sounds
fading,
dying,
were lost
in the churn of night, --
and all was still.

by Paul S. Bourinot

Canadian Poet 1893-1969 Best known for children’s verse

image:  Paul Bunyan strapped slabs of bacon to his feet to grease the cookhouse griddle for hungry lumberjacks