Blue Sky Blue Streak

Linguists postulate that human speech has the potential to be infinitely creative, meaning that our languages can produce an unlimited set of unique, nonrepeated sentences. In fact, some say that the majority of actual human utterances are composed of such unique sentences.

Chris is putting this theory to the test by asking people to utter unique sentences, sentences which have likely never been said before and will never be said again. The sentences are then placed on a blue sky and displayed here, where their uniqueness can be tested: if anyone has ever said one of these sentences, please email me, so that we can disqualify it from acting as evidence for creativity in human speech. Please note that simply reading the sentences aloud doesn't count, it only counts if you have said the sentences in a naturally-occuring conversation or other utterance. Similarly, if you have not ever said any of these sentences, please write in as well, so that we can continue to build evidence in favor of their uniqueness and thus also the possibility for creativity in human speech. Any other comments on the sentences' eligibility for this project, or their general characteristics (why is red such a prominent color choice?) are welcome.

You may also submit your own sentences. These must be sentences which you have said out loud, not merely typed. They must use real words and be grammatical, at least to the degree practiced by average fluent speakers of your language in everyday speech.

The sentences that have been submitted so far can be found in text format below. Starting just recently, I have started appending the names of each sentence's creator in parentheses after the sentence.

To get the full blue sky effect, click on the sentence!

This ball is round and looks as though it has a wood design and maybe it’s made of wood and it’s attached to a horse-looking-type thing--I think that looks like a horse tail--and it kind of looks like the scales of some kind of reptile.

Today I sewed a huge hole in my jeans shut.

Art Allen Hierosimowicz is the most fantastic human being on the face of the earth.

You have nine bikes, two cars, and three garbage cans, and there’s a car going down the street, and there’s a girl walking, and there’s a guy walking, there’s a girl talking on the phone, and the sky is grey.

I’m not sure if people are being classically trained to opera sing, or if a griffin is being tortured by humans.

SIU has some mighty fine shrubbery.

The tree ate the cigarette dispenser which ate the bike.

The building is red and made of brick.

I play music throughout the week.

I am the Empress of Nasiria, and my son Eric is the heir-apparent.

A dream is a goal that has not been realized but can be slept upon and it's up to the person to really acknowledge that dream to make it really happen and become a reality.

I like to eat mashmallows out of bellybuttons.

What's the deal with that red fire extinguisher?

Now she is the only one I can think about, if only she were the one for me.

The orange light filters down to the red light and makes a straight line to the Coca-Cola patch.

So what's going on with you today--is there a show over there, or here, or where is the art set up?

How can we begin to understand our stand?

Three monkeys gave two hippopotamuses a pet dog.

My tomato paste is weak.

Underground flatulence develops from planted pigs eating lead-based mermaid puppets.

Doctor Gregory Sciullo recites a wholly unique sentence at the SHARE campout, two thousand and seven. (Dok Gregory Sciullo)

These marks, right here on these rocks, are remarkably fossil-like. (Ed)

If I saw a whole lot of ball lightning, I would just fall to the ground and kind of try to hide in the nearest I-don't-know-where. (Olga Malycheva)

Tiki torches, burning with oil as found from mother earth, also created me. (Anonymous)

The four top shelves of that unit are empty. (Desiree Ledet)

The date and time are now Sun May 18 16:42:49 CDT 2008. (Chris Colburn)

Now I know how Hitler felt. (Chad Wanzek)

I one time lost a game while getting shot in the eye—Cat and I fell over and the sky was blue.

The sun shines bright just like my smile. (Nora)

The freckles on my thigh look like the polka-dots on that ugly shirt. (Danelle Gentile)

A life, I thought, froze in my absence.

The mind can never die, it has to go somewhere, and it had to be somewhere before it was here. (Richara Terpening)

Will you practice dying?

Look high above, live very below, just remember where ever you go.  (Cynthia Comerinsky)

I can’t talk I’m a mute.  (John Doe)

I’m the best mime in the world. (John Doe)

The sky is somewhere aliens hide.

My uncle’s daughter’s friend’s wife’s sister’s cousin’s aunt’s crazy nephew’s son’s mother’s second cousin’s great aunt’s funeral was yesterday.  (Danielle Stanard)

I have a question about the sky—I would like to know how the clouds turn black.

The sky, we envy its beauty and its presence so in return it offers us a potion as a species, and in that potion it becomes sin, yet we know that what we speak becomes truth: “the sky is the limit.” (Timothy Taplin, Jr.)

The sky is a chronic inspiration to humans; it is more addictive the more we learn. (Timothy Taplin, Jr.)

The sky, described as being an embodiment of eternal bliss—we have treated it like a machine, yet we know it lives, so with that knowledge the species that seems so infinite has been poisoned, and traveled its heavens and embraced our sin and justified it as lust, yet we call it curiosity: “ignorance is bliss.” (Timothy Taplin, Jr.)

I’m measuring my fingers for the foam I need to make my muppet. (Jeremiah Howe)

I'm telling you, those chipmunks, they're mature. (Rafiq Jackson by way of Chad Wanzek)

Cookies are in my head right now, chocolate chip, raisin, but I don't like those so much, I wish they made a giant Rainbow Cookie just for special days like these. (Christina Roth)

Our speaker's worn-out fire engine red sneakers show Chris' creativity and funness, if funness is a real word, but maybe it's just in my imaginary dictionary. (Mickelle)

The blue bench beside the bird is beside a blossoming blossom, beneath a birch. (Austin Czubara)

Which witch will whether the weather, whether or not the weather is wetter? (Adam Hill)

If I had a pool of sprinkles I'd never pee in it. (Lyndsey Nortz)

Let's create an exclusive Facebook group called I Hate People where you can't join unless you are invited and no one else is invited.

I'm sorry that I spit Franzia on your bedroom door and used your electrical tape to selfishly decorate my pimp cup. (Laura Dean)

Margaret walked through an open door while passing gas which then caused Jeremy Finkle to pass out and killed a possum that was mating on a rock. (Ashley Fess)

My best friend's little brother walked up the down escalator with 4 puppies, 3 cats, 6 turtles and a blue frog named Napoleon who jumped out of his hands. (Lisa)

The clock's red minute hand is ticking on the sandy yellow wall. (Kara G.)

I got out of bed this morning and found out my mom traded me for a common household object and then I found out it was a refrigerator, so I was like really excited and then she told me I wasn't her child anymore so then I was sad.

Finding a sentence upon command is very difficult because the pressure of writing a sentence is intense when the sentence doesn't really matter.

Yesterday I went to the store and bought paint, pens, cereal, tissues, soap, lightbulbs, and salt. (Taylor Ungleich)

Big white fluffy clouds create big white fluffy creatures which are created by big white fluffy imaginations and I love big white fluffy pillows.

Today tomorrow, past present, time is everything...time is speed, electricity, lights, sun, moon, hinges, cars, airplanes, trees, fire, weather, printers, time is money and spaceships.

There are five black hand bags on the speckled table in the oddly lit room.

My best friend's sister met her first baby's daddy and ex-husband at their family reunion and they are cousins and they knew this before they dated and still don't find it weird.

Once I have said this phrase, there will be no one else who will be able to say, or think, or do what I just did--I am an original and unrepeatable.

I would have attempted to caress the red and black poison dart frog, but the person behind me on the path was in a hurry. (Anita Welych)

The Massachusetts anthill is attacking the turquoise Dunkin Donuts on my nose. (Martin)

I can't seem to keep my bird's beak out of my ear.

The ant ate the apple that ate the sweatshirt that ate the piece of paper that ate the table that ate the carpet.

An inconceivable number of Nile-bound gargoyles can be overwheming when viewed from a peculiar perspective, especially if you are a time traveler from the past. (Nick Vernetti)

Red roses should always be purple when you see them outside--through rose-colored glasses. (Cassandra LaPorte)

What are friends for? Sometimes I forget. (Christine)

My magnitude is bitchin'.

Monkey caught the bear who was eaten by a fish.

Some people tie their shoes with spaghetti and then bears wear them when they go snorkeling. (Sarah Liddell)

If I killed a wench with a wrench and then buried her in a trench and then killed a gent with a tent over rent, what would be my reason for the death of the wench?

I know what you're doin' next Tuesday!

Somewhere, deep in a languid dark bayou of Arkansas, a multitude of avid birdwatchers seek the rapture of an ivory billed woodpecker sighting, while inadvertantly stomping over the very last of Bachman's warbler's nests.

If cheeseburgers grew on trees, squirrels would become obese. (Charles Saidel)

Before I hammer this cat, please tell my grandmother her iPhone's been eaten...by deer. (Michael Rohr)

Glitter fell from the sky onto an ocean, covering all the fish, leaving them all super happy and sparkly.

Gym sweat makes my saxophone horny.

My stepfather is a robin egg eater because his best friend's mother's dentist told him that it would make his teeth whiter and lengthen his tongue.

There is nothing in this world that “seems” normal; what is normal?

To be unique, you just have to be random like lawn chairs and eggplants.

My Puppy, Remm-Pot is a pee pee pants because she refuses to allow her itsy-bitsy paws to touch the cold wet faded grass, so she goes on Grandma’s carpets.

Jolly is the rain that falls from the blueness. (Sydney Moreau)

I need to start my day with coffee because if I don’t I will be cranky, and if I am cranky I will ruin my day and others’, because when I am cranky I get road rage to the point where I even yell at squirrels.

Lavender-flavored bubble gum bubbles floating forever in a tangerine grove. (Grace Hubert)

The bear was chasing the boy who was chasing a girl who was chasing a dog who was chasing a cat who was chasing a mouse.

I went to the bank to pick up my 20-dollar baby named Bill who I rock home and gave a bath and put to sleep.

The tree jumped over the clouds that skipped to the sun that climbed the rocks that ran through the sky that fell into the ocean.

Ahh humbug, you crazy old fool, sitting alone under a shattering tree of crazy gold.

The green dog ate nine thousand pounds of yellow and orange marshmallows and then took a shit that was a mixture of green, yellow, and orange.

Polar bears were born on the moon under fossils in 37 B.C.

Matter of the fact is that I lost my homework.

Barnaby ate the imaginary velociraptor’s fingers after Lilly ate the blue snowman’s carrot.

Infinity is as loquacious as the rivers and the oceans, they are all forever talkative. (Sarah Vergara)

The tall, tall, tall, tall, tall door opened and closed and opened and closed and closed and opened and opened and opened while the bad child banged and kicked on the wall next to the tall, tall, tall, tall, tall door. (Eternity-Dominique Williams)

The sky is sinfully adorable upon peaking upon the horizons.

The majestic racqueteers listened to Nirvana and read Water for Elephants while visiting Westminster Abbey. (Megan Steinberg)

The cat jumped on the counter to catch the fly that came in from the window which overlooked the open field in the distance.

I itched my head and drank some coffee as I danced and fell in the street as it rained and hailed during the warm winter night.

I want the bim bam sauce like Nat King Cole, but I want McDonald’s on the side. (Jaleesa Martin)

My favorite elephant is a quiet elephant that is given soapy baths frequently and doesn’t walk too close to me.

My great aunt ‘s red slippers were filled with giant yellow gumballs.

Call me fat, call me chubby, call me whatever you want because I don’t care ‘cause I’m a gamer.

***New developments***

"There’s no such thing as too much toilet paper" has been disqualified as a unique sentence. One of our readers recounts having said this many times before, so it has been removed from the list and will no longer be considered as evidence of creativity in human speech.

"I will one day see the Cubs win the World Series" has now also been disqualified as a unique sentence by another of our readers. Thanks to all of you who have contacted me about this. With our mounting evidence, we will hopefully soon be able to pass judgement on the question of infinite creativity in human speech.

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