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Reader question: Please explain this sentence: He wouldn’t know art if it stared him in the face. My comments: Put another way, this man’s taste in art leaves much to be desired. Actually, that’s putting it mildly. This man doesn’t have an eye for art at all. Let’s make use of an example. If you put a Picasso painting in front of him, he would not be able to see if it’s any good or different. That’s likely it. Or something like that. To stare at something, you see, is to look fixedly at it, and in close range. You stare into a small mirror, for example, and you can see your face staring back at you. Hence and therefore, if something stares you in the face, it is close by, face to face with you and perhaps crying out loud for your attention. If you don’t see it, then you’re oblivious of it, ignorant of it, unaware of it. Perhaps it doesn’t stare you in the face long enough. Or perhaps you should just learn to pay closer attention to what you are confronted with. Or, as they say, face the facts. And the facts can be anything. I mean, anything can stare us in the face, beauty, truth, humor, defeat, death, anything. And if they stare us in the face, meaning they’re obviously there, and we don’t see them, perhaps there’s something wrong with us. I mean, if someone talk about you that way, saying something stared you in the face and you wouldn’t be able to see it, or do something about it, usually they don’t mean it as a compliment. | 
