"My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little problems help me to do so." (Sherlock Holmes)

I enjoy embedding puns and subtle self-references into many of my answers and comments.

This question inspired me to create this web page.

Remember, context is everything.

Ready to ask an EL&U question? Don't want to get downvoted? I'd like to offer three nuggets of advice¹:

(a) Want to ask what something means? Don't ask in a vacuum. (In other words, don't pull a phrase out of a sentence, and ask what that phrase means – instead, give the whole sentence.)

(b) Giving us a sentence to evaluate? Tell us where you got it from! (Is it from a book? A blog? A respected journal? An instruction sheet? A contemporary source, or something that is centuries old? Such information is often vital to interpreting language and deciphering meaning.)

(c) Do some of your own research first, and then share those findings in your question. Don't ask a question that creates the illusion that you don't know how to use a dictionary.

P.S. Never make the mistake of thinking that a tiny preposition has only one meaning.

¹I like to point out that one user – a non-native speaker, even! – has amassed over 10,000 points simply by following these three basic guidelines. Elaboration can be a beautiful thing.