Amuse-bouche: More people have been to Berlin than I have.

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Today’s Wonderful Word: “illusion.”

Definition: an instance of a wrong or misinterpreted perception of a sensory experience.

Etymology: From Old French illusion “a mocking, deceit, deception” (12c.), from Latin illusionem (nominative illusio) “a mocking, jesting, jeering; irony,” from past-participle stem of illudere “mock at,” literally “to play with.”

Example: Stripes embellish the surface to create the illusion of various wood-grain textures.

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Today’s Amuse Bouche is an example of a comparative illusion, also known as an “Escher sentence.”

Penrose stairs are going somewhere, like Escher sentences are. More sentences are going to end less confusingly than mine will.

What did you say? Multiple perceived meanings make you cock your head to the side and furrow your brow.

No comparative illusion is too trivial to be ignored. Their ungrammaticality renders them illusive. Comparative illusions are not to be compared to grammatically correct garden path sentences. I’ll talk about those in the future.

While on the topic of illusions, if you have the chance to visit a Museum of Illusions, I would recommend it.

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A reference in the page linked above, Shepard tones are similar to Escher sentences. A Shepard tone, named after Roger Shepard, is a sound consisting of a superposition of sine waves separated by octaves. When played with the bass pitch of the tone moving upward or downward, it is referred to as the Shepard scale. This creates the auditory illusion of a tone that seems to continually ascend or descend in pitch, yet which ultimately gets no higher or lower.

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Answer to Saturday’s riddle:

$100