Giving Wodehouse the Cheese

At the studio we have a saying we repeat regularly whenever we pay homage to a famous painter. We call it "giving (insert famous artist) the cheese."

For those not reading closely, or without encyclopedic memories, I recently used the phonetic similarities between the words oeuvre and oeuf, followed by the phrase "whichever isn't the egg," to comic effect.

Hopefully this caused a smile to pass over your lips. Me? I love stuff like this. It makes me feel like P. G. Wodehouse. Although one has to ask, does a smile actually pass over lips?

Likewise the similarity between the words homage and fromage. One of these words means praise and acknowledgment (roughly), and the other means cheese.

Thus, somehow, when we pay homage to an artist--in this case, Vermeer--with a painting like this:

We call it "giving Vermeer the cheese."

I bring this up only because I am repairing, as we speak, to the fromagerie, so to speak, and I want you to be ready.