Thesaurus fun, part one

It’s good practice to keep your mind sharp by focusing on something other than BIM. In cleaning up my desk drawers and old files, I have stumbled upon some brain teasers and funny memos collected in the earlier years of my career. I’ll share them with you in this and future posts.

The following phrases are well-known sayings that have been ‘translated’ using more elaborate words. See if you can figure out what they mean. (Hint: #1 is ‘Twinkle, twinkle, little star.’)

1. Scintillate, scintillate, diminutive asteroid.
2. Members of an avian species of identical plumage congregate.
3. Surveillance should precede saltation.
4. Pulchritude possesses solely cutaneous profundity.
5. It is fruitless to become lachrymose over precipitately departed lacteal fluid.
6. Freedom from incrustations of grime is contiguous to rectitude.
7. The stylus is more potent than the claymore.
8. It is fruitless to attempt to indoctrinate a superannuated canine with innovative maneuvers.
9. Eschew the implement of correction and vitiate the scion.
10. The temperature of the aqueous content of an unremittingly ogled saucepan does not reach 212 degrees Fahrenheit.
11. All articles that coruscate with resplendence are not truly auriferous.
12. Where there are visible vapors having their prevalence in ignited carbonaceous materials there is conflagration.
13. Sorting on the part of mendicants must be interdicted.