[Ads-l] spooky claws

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Mon Sep 30 18:23:21 UTC 2019


The gesture I have in mind is the kind you use to tease little kids into
expecting the zombie apocalypse.

You furrow your brow, purse your lips, scrunch your neck, lean forward,
extend your arms slightly, curve your fingers, then wiggle them menacingly,
often while making a moaning supernatural sound.

Wallace's ironic message was pretty clearly, "WOOOOOOO! The
Conspira-tors'll git you/ Ef /You/  Don't/ Watch/ Out!!"

Not how I use air quotes.

JL

On Mon, Sep 30, 2019 at 1:52 PM Andy Bach <afbach at gmail.com> wrote:

> > And if there is an existing term somewhere, tell me what it is,  (Then
> switch to " spooky claws.")
>
> Isn't "air quotes" the usual term?  Unless you mean that the face
> scrunch/air quotes adds a level of disbelief that air quotes alone doesn't
> carry.
>
> On Sun, Sep 29, 2019 at 4:41 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > On Friday, MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace made political history by becoming the
> > first former Republican White House staffer and current news host to
> > scrunch up her face and wiggle her fingers at viewers while expressing
> > skepticism about a conspiracy theory.
> >
> > I asked my wife if some phrase existed for this familiar, two-handed
> wiggly
> > gesture.  She immediately responded, "spooky claws."    I wondered aloud
> > why I'd never met with that expression, and she clarified by saying she'd
> > just made it up.
> >
> > So if there's no recognized term, I urge everyone to adopt "making spooky
> > claws."  ('Tis the season.)
> >
> > And if there is an existing term somewhere, tell me what it is,  (Then
> > switch to " spooky claws.")
> >
> > JL
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
> --
>
> a
>
> Andy Bach,
> afbach at gmail.com
> 608 658-1890 cell
> 608 261-5738 wk
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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