Rumsfeld on "lonesome"

[Peter A. McGraw]

Now that I see the quote, though, I wonder if it's really an event, or any
noun for that matter, that's being described as lonesome.  It looks more
like an impersonal construction to me, along the lines of "It's funny how
things sometimes turn out," or "It's lonesome out here on the prairie."

Peter Mc.

--On Wednesday, August 28, 2002 7:59 PM -0400 Laurence Horn
<laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:

> Yep, here it is, from today's Times (which also features a very nice
> story on the Arthur Avenue "Little Italy" in the Bronx, thriving as
> ever):
>
> "I don't know how many other countries will participate in the event
> the president does decide that the risks of not acting [against Iraq]
> are greater than the risks of acting," Mr. Rumsfeld said, addressing
> 3,000 marines at Camp Pendleton, Calif.[...] "It's less important to
> have unanimity than it is to be making the right decisions and doing
> the right thing, even though at the outset it may seem lonesome," he
> added.
>
> (p. A8)
>
> So it wasn't a person or a thing that's lonesome here, but an event,
> a.k.a. a military attack.
>
> Larry



****************************************************************************
                               Peter A. McGraw
                   Linfield College   *   McMinnville, OR
                            pmcgraw at linfield.edu