walk the talk; pushback; "baseline" = basis; surrender monkeys

[Jonathan Lighter]

1. Dig this title-page collaboration:

  1995 Epictetus & Sharon Lebell _The Art of Living_ (N.Y.: HarperSanFrancisco) x: Epictetus walked his talk: He lived modestly in an old hut and eschewed any interest in fame, fortune, and power.

  2. "Pushback" means "resistance" but sounds more kinetic, has fewer syllables:

  2006 Rep. Jane Harman on _First Edition_ (CNN-TV) (Dec. 10): He's going to have pushback from a Pentagon that's going to have a very different view of this.

  3. "Baseline" means "basis" but is sportier:

  2006 Rep. Jane Harman on _First Edition_ (CNN-TV) (Dec. 10): The ISG report lays out a good baseline for changing that strategy.

  4. As we know, a "surrender monkey" is a monkey, often French, that surrenders to something evil like Hitler's Wehrmacht coming for it:

  2006 _N.Y. Post_ (Dec. 7) 1: SURRENDER MONKEYS: Iraq Study Group Urges US to Give Up.

  JL



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