Self-deprecation

To summarize, although some observers surely took Kekule s many self-deprecations as insincere, 1 know of no evidence to suggest that anyone present in Berlin that day thought of Kekule s reminiscences as anything other than an attempt to offer actual recollections, or that they regarded the autobiographical anecdotes as mere tall tales concocted for the amusement of the audience. 

Unlike in James Bond films, women do not follow Woody Allen with their eyes. The front of manliness falls quickly. In Sleeper, in the woods at night, after he says that Luna Schlosser (Diane Keaton) has notMng to be scared of when he s with her, he quickly adds, startled, What was that noise He has to seduce women, with self-deprecating humor and insult. Later, when he meets the woman who will be his first wife (m Annie Hall) he says to her quickly, You re New York Jewish left wing liberal intellectual who went to West Brandeis University and socialist summer camps... Stop me before I make a complete imbecile of myself She replies, No that was wonderful, I love being reduced to a cultural stereotype, and their relationsMp begins. 

Definition of base quantities and their respective units is a serious business, absolutely necessary for the unambiguous sharing of quantitative experimental data among scientists and engineers around the world. However, it can become a somewhat dry and even boring subject for chemists, who are never reluctant to look for ways to spice up their professional business with a little self-deprecating humour. 

Brook had set the basis for developing the reaction that came to bear his name, but clearly many mechanistic details remained to be elucidated. In addition, Brook did not anticipate the potential utility of the rearrangement, in fact concluding the 1959 paper with what turned out to be wholly unwarranted self-deprecation It is doubtful whether the rearrangement reported here will have much synthetic application since in general silyl ethers are much more readily prepared than are the corresponding a-silylcarbinols. ... 

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