A weekly series that explores a featured theme — this month, it's "tongues" — by pairing classic quotations with urgent images. What recent news items inspired these textual/visual sets? Leave your guesses in the comments, and check back next Wednesday afternoon for the answers.

"The communication of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living."
—T.S. Eliot

"Soon, someone will begin to clap, slowly, and they will love me for my honesty, because we’re all just walking bags of pain who have one or two chances in life to speak truthfully."
—Bill Peters (from Maverick Jetpants in the City of Quality)

“The function of muscle is to pull and not to push, except in the case of the genitals and the tongue.”
—Leonardo da Vinci

"Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands, and goes to work."
—Carl Sandburg

"For God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love."
—John Donne

See the connections? Write your guesses below — and feel free to leave your own "tongues" quotes — and check in next Wednesday to find the headlines that inspired these pairings.

Answers to last week's ISAV ("Cold Fire"):

"Black Friday Gun Sales Break Records" (zerohedge.com)
"Black Friday deals draw robust crowds" (Washington Post)
"It Has Been Nearly 28 Years Since We Have Had a Colder-Than-Average Month" (slate.com)
"Judge orders tobacco companies to admit deception" (reuters.com)
"Cat Cleans His Butt With Impunity in Insulation Ads" (adweek.com)