"a...youth with a gorgeous red necktie all awry" "his wig was, as the British say, skew-whiff"
"the absurd excuse that the dog ate his homework" "that's a cockeyed idea" "ask a nonsensical question and get a nonsensical answer" "a contribution so small as to be laughable" "it is ludicrous to call a cottage a mansion" "a preposterous attempt to turn back the pages of history" "her conceited assumption of universal interest in her rather dull children was ridiculous"
