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<h1><a title="Go to Schott’s Vocab Home" href="http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/"><img id="blog-header" alt="Schott’s Vocab - A miscellany of modern words and phrases" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs_v3/schott/schott_main.png"></a></h1>
<h2>A miscellany of modern words and phrases</h2></div>
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<div class="entry hentry" id="entry-6319"><span class="timestamp published" title="2009-04-08T13:00:23-04:00"><span class="date"><font color="#808080" size="1">April 8, 2009, 1:00 pm</font></span></span>
<h3 class="entry-title"><a title="Permanent Link to The Children Left Behind" href="http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/the-children-left-behind/" rel="bookmark"><font color="#990000">The Children Left Behind</font></a></h3>
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<p><strong>Children in rural China, left in the care of relatives by their migrant-worker parents.</strong></p>
<p>“Like millions of Chinese children, 16-year-old Song Yuedong sees his parents just once a year,” <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iIdyhuUmhjMQqHNHql3wGRkb105Q"><font color="#990000">Agence France-Presse</font></a> reported.</p>
<p style="PADDING-LEFT: 30px">As China’s army of migrant workers toil to build their nation’s future, children like Song live with relatives, often knowing their parents only as voices on the end of a phone.</p>
<p>Although not new, the problem of <em><strong>liushou ertong</strong></em> (or <strong>children left behind</strong>) appears to be getting worse: in 2000, A.F.P. reported, there were 23 million <em><strong>liushou ertong</strong></em>; the most recent figures indicate that the total is now 58 million (although only half of these are missing both parents). As might be expected, psychological and emotional problems are common among “<strong>left behind</strong>” children. Experts told A.F.P. that an absence of parental care leaves many children “vulnerable to violence including rape.”</p>
<p>Now, according to A.F.P., authorities in the eastern Chinese province of <a href="http://apps.ah.gov.cn/"><font color="#990000">Anhui</font></a> “have taken steps to defuse what experts say is a social time bomb” by introducing measures designed to improve the prospects of <em><strong>liushou ertong</strong></em>. These measures include appointing school professors as “<strong>interim family heads</strong>,” and offering training to grandparents so that they can help their grandchildren with homework.</p>
<p>Song Yuedong’s school was the first in Anhui to introduce the scheme. Its headmaster told A.F.P.:</p>
<p style="PADDING-LEFT: 30px">Before we had a lot of problems with the students. … But since we put the program in place [2004], the grades of ‘<em><strong>liushou ertong</strong></em>’ have gone up and the problems that we had with them have gone down.</p>
<p>(A recent report by <a href="http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/eastasia/view/419667/1/.html"><font color="#990000">Channel News Asia</font></a> suggested that children who accompanied their migrant-worker parents were not necessarily better off: “In Beijing, there is an estimated 240,000 children whose parents are migrant workers. Many are unable to attend school, mostly because their families cannot afford it.”)</p>
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<div class="entry hentry" id="entry-5995"><span class="timestamp published" title="2009-04-08T09:30:43-04:00"><span class="date"><font color="#808080" size="1">April 8, 2009, 9:30 am</font></span></span>
<h3 class="entry-title"><a title="Permanent Link to Kettling" href="http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/kettling/" rel="bookmark"><font color="#990000">Kettling</font></a></h3>
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<p><strong>A controversial strategy of crowd control through containment.</strong></p>
<p>“For more than seven hours yesterday, police prevented people from leaving the area of the London G20 demonstrations near the Bank of England,” Duncan Campbell reported in <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/02/g20-protests-police-kettling"><font color="#990000">The Guardian</font></a>.</p>
<p style="PADDING-LEFT: 30px">This is a strategy called the “<strong>kettle</strong>,” which sees protesters herded into an area and kept there for hours. Its stated aim is to contain a protest in a small area so it does not spread.</p>
<p><a class="more-link" href="http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/kettling/#more-5995"><font color="#990000">Read more…</font></a></p></div></div>
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<div class="entry hentry" id="entry-5923"><span class="timestamp published" title="2009-04-08T03:00:18-04:00"><span class="date"><font color="#808080" size="1">April 8, 2009, 3:00 am</font></span></span>
<h3 class="entry-title"><a title="Permanent Link to Super-Dense Crushload" href="http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/super-dense-crushload/" rel="bookmark"><font color="#990000">Super-Dense Crushload</font></a></h3>
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<p><strong>An official term for the extreme overcrowding on Mumbai’s commuter trains.</strong></p>
<p>“Passengers regularly forced to cling limpet-like to the sides of Mumbai’s rush hour trains because there is no room inside will tell you that as commutes go, theirs is a killer,” Rhys Blakely reported from India for<a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6011777.ece"><font color="#990000"> The Times of London</font></a>:</p>
<p style="PADDING-LEFT: 30px">Officials have coined the term “<strong>super-dense crushload</strong>” to describe how 550 commuters are regularly crammed into a carriage built for 200 – a situation where up to 16 standing passengers share every square meter of floor space*. </p>
<p>According to Blakely, 4,357 people died on Mumbai’s railways in 2008: the bulk of those killed were hit by trains while trespassing on the tracks. But, he noted:</p>
<p style="PADDING-LEFT: 30px">The next biggest portion of deaths – 853, or more than three every working day – were of passengers who fell (or were pushed) from carriages that travel at 40mph, have no doors and are often crammed dangerously full. Another 41 people perished after being bludgeoned by trackside poles while hanging out of overcrowded trains. Twenty-one were electrocuted to death by power cables as they sat on the roof — a location often chosen to avoid paying for tickets that cost only pennies. </p>
<p>Blakely quoted a local news photographer, Indranil Mukherjee, who remained sanguine about the cost-benefit calculation:</p>
<p style="PADDING-LEFT: 30px">Yes, you will see the occasional dead body . . . but a three-month unlimited pass only costs about 1,500 rupees [$30].</p>
<p>(* This term is not new, but increasingly newsworthy and inflationary. In 1998, <a href="http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/ie/daily/19980529/14950634.html"><font color="#990000">The Indian Express</font></a> reported that a <strong>super-dense crushload</strong> denoted a load of 10–11 people per square meter.)</p>
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<div class="entry hentry" id="entry-5915"><span class="timestamp published" title="2009-04-07T13:00:01-04:00"><span class="date"><font color="#808080" size="1">April 7, 2009, 1:00 pm</font></span></span>
<h3 class="entry-title"><a title="Permanent Link to The Big Ugly" href="http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/the-big-ugly/" rel="bookmark"><font color="#990000">The Big Ugly</font></a></h3>
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<p><strong>New York’s $131.8 billion budget.</strong></p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/opinion/01wed2.html?scp=1&sq=%22the%20big%20ugly%22&st=cse"><font color="#990000">New York Times</font></a> editorial observed recently:</p>
<p style="PADDING-LEFT: 30px">Despite all of the talk of shared sacrifice and of not filling in long-term gaps with short-term federal stimulus dollars, Gov. David Paterson of New York and other Democratic leaders have produced a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/nyregion/31albany.html"><font color="#990000">budget</font></a> that is now up to $131 billion— a whopping $10 billion more than last year’s. …</p>
<p style="PADDING-LEFT: 30px">Republicans who are now in the minority and had almost no voice in the secretive budget negotiations are calling it simply: “<strong>The Big Ugly</strong>.”</p>
<p>(This is not the first time that the term “<strong>The Big Ugly</strong>” has been associated with a New York state budget; in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/16/nyregion/albany-legislators-reach-accord-on-1.4-billion-in-taxes-and-fees.html?scp=32&sq=%22the%20big%20ugly%22&st=cse"><font color="#990000">1990</font></a>, the nickname was applied to a much-debated $1.4 billion tax package.)</p>
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<div class="entry hentry" id="entry-5829"><span class="timestamp published" title="2009-04-07T09:00:43-04:00"><span class="date"><font color="#808080" size="1">April 7, 2009, 9:00 am</font></span></span>
<h3 class="entry-title"><a title="Permanent Link to Koukouloforoi" href="http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/koukouloforo/" rel="bookmark"><font color="#990000">Koukouloforoi</font></a></h3>
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<p><strong>A Greek term for hooded militant protesters.</strong></p>
<p>Almost four months after the fatal police shooting of a teenage boy in Athens sparked <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/world/europe/09greece.html"><font color="#990000">rioting</font></a> across Greece, the country remains vulnerable to violent dissent, Nicole Itano reported for <a href="http://features.csmonitor.com/globalnews/2009/03/30/amnesty-report-blasts-greek-police/"><font color="#990000">The Christian Scientist Monitor</font></a>:</p>
<p style="PADDING-LEFT: 30px">Banks, offices belonging to political parties, car dealerships, and even media organizations are attacked, bombed, or burned on a regular basis. A new term, “<em><strong>koukouloforoi</strong></em>” or “the hooded ones,” has entered Greek slang to describe the perpetrators, who often mask their faces to avoid identification and protect themselves from police tear gas.</p>
<p>(<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/world/europe/01greece.html?_r=1&ref=europe"><font color="#990000">The Times</font></a> recently reported that the Greek government had solicited the advice of Britain’s Scotland Yard “on how to tackle rising crime and extremism.” See also, <a href="http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/15/e700-generation/"><font color="#990000">€700 Generation</font></a>.)</p>
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<div class="entry hentry" id="entry-5919"><span class="timestamp published" title="2009-04-07T03:00:41-04:00"><span class="date"><font color="#808080" size="1">April 7, 2009, 3:00 am</font></span></span>
<h3 class="entry-title"><a title="Permanent Link to The United Condom" href="http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/the-united-condom/" rel="bookmark"><font color="#990000">The United Condom</font></a></h3>
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<p><strong>Nickname bestowed upon the U.K. by the French after the British Home Secretary “mistakenly” claimed two pornographic movies on expenses.</strong></p>
<p>Discussing the (inevitably titled) <strong>porngate</strong> <a href="http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/british-minister-promises-to-pay-for-porn/?scp=1&sq=Jacqui%20SMith%20husband&st=cse"><font color="#990000">scandal</font></a> that had engulfed Jacqui Smith and her husband, <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1166266/The-United-Condom-How-Jacqui-Smith-porn-scandal-Britain-laughing-stock-world.html"><font color="#990000">The Daily Mail</font></a> reported:</p>
<p style="PADDING-LEFT: 30px">“The media in France has dubbed Britain the ‘<strong>United Condom</strong>.’ Daily newspaper Le Figaro crowed: ‘You couldn’t make it up! With sex, money and politics, this story is a journalist’s dream.’”</p>
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<div class="entry hentry" id="entry-6277"><span class="timestamp published" title="2009-04-06T16:00:04-04:00"><span class="date"><font color="#808080" size="1">April 6, 2009, 4:00 pm</font></span></span>
<h3 class="entry-title"><a title="Permanent Link to Like Going to a Spa" href="http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/06/like-going-to-a-spa/" rel="bookmark"><font color="#990000">Like Going to a Spa</font></a></h3>
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<p><strong>Bizarre analogy for soliciting International Monetary Fund financing, that some suspect is part of a British de-stigmatization strategy.</strong></p>
<p>Discussing the possibility that Britain may be forced to seek help from the International Monetary Fund, Andrew Porter, the political editor of The Daily Telegraph, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/5101950/Britain-should-not-fear-asking-for-IMF-cash.html"><font color="#990000">quoted</font></a> an (unnamed) senior Cabinet member:</p>
<p style="PADDING-LEFT: 30px">Previously a country would only go [to the I.M.F.] if they were in a very bad state. It was a bit like going to accident and emergency to get urgent help. … This new facility will not be like that. It is a bit more like getting well-being care or even <strong>like going to a spa</strong> to recuperate.</p>
<p>Although British Prime Minister Gordon Brown had previously <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7980375.stm"><font color="#990000">rejected</font></a> speculation about an I.M.F. bailout, a number of commentators claimed that this latest briefing was part of a strategy to spin public opinion: the influential Conservative blogger <a href="http://iaindale.blogspot.com/2009/04/imf-let-softening-up-process-commence.html"><font color="#990000">Iain Dale</font></a> declared “Let the Softening Up Process Commence!” and in The Spectator, James Forsyth <a href="http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/3514431/do-they-really-expect-us-to-believe-this.thtml"><font color="#990000">asked</font></a> “do they really expect us to believe this?”</p>
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<div class="entry hentry" id="entry-5449"><span class="timestamp published" title="2009-04-06T11:15:54-04:00"><span class="date"><font color="#808080" size="1">April 6, 2009, 11:15 am</font></span></span>
<h3 class="entry-title"><a title="Permanent Link to Sit-Down-Look" href="http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/06/sit-down-look/" rel="bookmark"><font color="#990000">Sit-Down-Look</font></a></h3>
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<p><strong>A Nigerian expression meaning to passively observe – now used to describe the developing world’s quiescent role in the global economic collapse.</strong></p>
<p>In a recent editorial for the Nigerian paper <a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/200903300087.html"><font color="#990000">This Day</font></a>, Kennedy Ifeh suggested that the third world had become an impotent bystander to the global financial crisis:</p>
<p style="PADDING-LEFT: 30px">Developed and emerging economies in Europe, America and Asia seem to have all abandoned the globalization relic and the promises of hope for mankind to adopt protectionist policies. World economy has suddenly turned Keynesian.</p>
<p style="PADDING-LEFT: 30px">Governments are injecting stimulus bailouts and enforcing financial regulations. Only recently, the U.S. Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner, unfolded plans that suggests [the] government’s move to nationalize banks. In all of these, countries of the third world are left in the dark and have helplessly assumed the status of the popular Nigeria phrase “<strong>sit-down-look</strong>.” …</p>
<p style="PADDING-LEFT: 30px">In the face of obvious realities, the third world should look inwards and harness the powers from within towards a strong economic alliance and convergence of common interest rather than to hope for aids from the <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/g/group_of_20/index.html"><font color="#990000">G20</font></a>.</p>
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<div class="entry hentry" id="entry-5827"><span class="timestamp published" title="2009-04-06T09:00:43-04:00"><span class="date"><font color="#808080" size="1">April 6, 2009, 9:00 am</font></span></span>
<h3 class="entry-title"><a title="Permanent Link to Recession Flu" href="http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/06/recession-flu/" rel="bookmark"><font color="#990000">Recession Flu</font></a></h3>
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<p><strong>Maladies caused by the economic crisis.</strong></p>
<p>“Are you sick and tired of the recession? And, more to the point, is the recession making you sick and tired?” Damian Corless asked in <a href="http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/feeling-blue-with-recession-flu-1691917.html"><font color="#990000">The Irish Independent</font></a>, “If the answer is yes, chances are you’re suffering from <strong>Recession Flu</strong>.”</p>
<p style="PADDING-LEFT: 30px"><strong>Recession Flu</strong> is an umbrella term that covers a spectrum of disorders whose symptoms can include panic attacks, insomnia, gastric troubles, high blood pressure, lethargy, and an overwhelming sense of dread that makes sufferers just want to sink back under the covers each morning and make the world go away. </p>
<p style="PADDING-LEFT: 30px">Doctors in Britain say that <strong>Recession Flu</strong> is as real as any textbook illness and the Royal College of General Practitioners believes it is building to epidemic proportions.</p>
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<div class="entry hentry" id="entry-5821"><span class="timestamp published" title="2009-04-06T03:00:00-04:00"><span class="date"><font color="#808080" size="1">April 6, 2009, 3:00 am</font></span></span>
<h3 class="entry-title"><a title="Permanent Link to Twitchhiking" href="http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/06/twitchhiking/" rel="bookmark"><font color="#990000">Twitchhiking</font></a></h3>
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<p><strong>Traveling using transport and accommodation provided (solely) by fellow Twitterers.</strong> (Twitter + hitchhiking.)</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://twitter.com/twitchhiker"><font color="#990000">Twitchhiker</font></a></strong>, Paul Smith, <a href="http://www.twitchhiker.com/"><font color="#990000">resolved</font></a> to “travel as far around the world as possible in 30 days, relying only on the goodwill of people using Twitter.” <a href="http://timesonline.typepad.com/technology/2009/03/twitchiker-makes-it-to-the-other-side-of-the-world-in-30-days.html"><font color="#990000">Starting</font></a> in <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&q=Newcastle%2C%20England&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl"><font color="#990000">Newcastle</font></a>, England, Smith made it as far as <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=QbH&ei=5THTSezfJI7vlQeNy537Cw&resnum=0&q=Stewart%20Island%2C%20New%20Zealand&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl"><font color="#990000">Stewart Island</font></a>, New Zealand, (just shy of his target destination, Campbell Island) within the allotted time, and raised £5,000 ($7,200) for a <a href="http://www.charitywater.org/"><font color="#990000">water charity</font></a>. </p>
<p>Smith <a href="http://www.twitchhiker.com/"><font color="#990000">blogged</font></a>:</p>
<p style="PADDING-LEFT: 30px">“The <strong>Twitchhiker</strong> project showed that kindness is universal, that the whole can be infinitely greater than the sum of its parts, and that social media may begin online but it will converge with the real world whenever and wherever you let it.”</p>
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<div class="entry hentry" id="entry-5285"><span class="timestamp published" title="2009-04-04T03:00:11-04:00"><span class="date"><font color="#808080" size="1">April 4, 2009, 3:00 am</font></span></span>
<h3 class="entry-title"><a title="Permanent Link to Elsewhere: U.S.P.S — Smiles, Frowns, Upside Downs" href="http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/04/elsewhere-usps-smiles-frowns-upside-downs/" rel="bookmark"><font color="#990000">Elsewhere: U.S.P.S — Smiles, Frowns, Upside Downs</font></a></h3>
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<p>The <a href="http://www.usps.com/"><font color="#990000">United States Postal Service</font></a> has published online a detailed glossary of <strong>postal terms</strong> [<a href="http://www.usps.com/cpim/ftp/pubs/pub32/pub32a_g.html"><font color="#990000">A–G</font></a>, <a href="http://www.usps.com/cpim/ftp/pubs/pub32/pub32h_p.html"><font color="#990000">H–P</font></a>, <a href="http://www.usps.com/cpim/ftp/pubs/pub32/pub32q_z.html"><font color="#990000">Q–Z</font></a>]. Many of these terms are dry and technical (“Auxiliary Service Facility” or “Remote Encoding Center”), but a few are noteworthy — including the very splendid distinctions between “accidental deviations from the uniform alignment of envelopes” — <strong>Smiles, Frowns, and Upside Downs.</strong> <a class="more-link" href="http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/04/elsewhere-usps-smiles-frowns-upside-downs/#more-5285"><font color="#990000">Read more…</font></a></p>
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<div class="entry hentry" id="entry-5469"><span class="timestamp published" title="2009-04-03T15:30:55-04:00"><span class="date"><font color="#808080" size="1">April 3, 2009, 3:30 pm</font></span></span>
<h3 class="entry-title"><a title="Permanent Link to Ghetto Bird Hotline" href="http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/03/ghetto-bird-hotline/" rel="bookmark"><font color="#990000">Ghetto Bird Hotline</font></a></h3>
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<p><strong>Nickname for the L.A.P.D. Air Support Division phone number.</strong></p>
<p>The Web site <a href="http://laist.com/2009/03/27/how_to_find_out_why_an_lapd_helicop.php"><font color="#990000">LAist</font></a> recently shared with its readers the number to call to discover why an <a href="http://www.lapdonline.org/air_support_division"><font color="#990000">L.A.P.D. helicopter</font></a> is circling overhead, prompting one commenter to exclaim:</p>
<p style="PADDING-LEFT: 30px">This is awesome you have no idea how many times my girlfriend asks me “why do you think that helicopter is there?” and now we could finally answer that question. I’m sitting around waiting for one to start circling to call the <strong>Ghetto Bird Hotline</strong>!</p>
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<div class="entry hentry" id="entry-6223"><span class="timestamp published" title="2009-04-03T10:24:38-04:00"><span class="date"><font color="#808080" size="1">April 3, 2009, 10:24 am</font></span></span>
<h3 class="entry-title"><a title="Permanent Link to Why Does He Have To Shout?" href="http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/03/why-does-he-have-to-shout/" rel="bookmark"><font color="#990000">Why Does He Have To Shout?</font></a></h3>
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<p><strong>Queen Elizabeth II’s semi-serious rebuke of Silvio Berlusconi.</strong></p>
<p>A minor diplomatic incident took place at the “family” photo call of <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/g/group_of_20/index.html"><font color="#990000">G20</font></a> leaders, when the Queen became irritated at the Italian Prime Minister’s booming voice. After Berlusconi shouted “Mr. Obama!” just a few feet behind her, the Queen turned round, raised her hands in exasperation, and asked “What is it? <strong>Why does he have to shout?</strong>”</p>
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<p>Somewhat inevitably Berlusconi was criticized for another <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/3399427/Silvio-Berlusconi-10-memorable-gaffes.html"><font color="#990000">gaffe</font></a>, and the Queen was <a href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2359115.ece"><font color="#990000">described</font></a> as “not amused.” But a spokeswoman for Buckingham Palace <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1166820/We-NOT-offended-Palace-tries-smooth-Queens-Why-does-shout-jibe-Berlusconi.html"><font color="#990000">played down</font></a> the incident: “It was loud and jolly and very jovial, there were no gaffes and no offence taken.”</p>
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<div class="entry hentry" id="entry-6141"><span class="timestamp published" title="2009-04-03T07:00:35-04:00"><span class="date"><font color="#808080" size="1">April 3, 2009, 7:00 am</font></span></span>
<h3 class="entry-title"><a title="Permanent Link to The Coping Classes" href="http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/03/the-coping-classes/" rel="bookmark"><font color="#990000">The Coping Classes</font></a></h3>
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<p><strong>The “law-abiding, hard-working, tax-paying” middle class.</strong></p>
<p>“Long after the G20 circus has left the capital and the mess has been cleaned up, there will remain, right across [Britain], a festering resentment with disgracefully few legitimate outlets for redress,” wrote Jeff Randall in <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/jeffrandall/5096043/Forget-the-G20-mob-coping-class-fury-is-about-to-reach-boiling-point.html"><font color="#990000">The Daily Telegraph</font></a>, “It is the product of frustration, exploitation and a mounting sense of betrayal.”</p>
<p style="PADDING-LEFT: 30px">This is not the synthetic indignation of those who would eat the bankers, but the boiling rage of the United Kingdom’s <strong>coping classes</strong> – law-abiding, hard-working, tax-paying citizens – who, over the past decade, have despaired as their country’s sovereignty has been dissipated, its freedoms compromised and ancient institutions diminished by a tribe of political pygmies.</p>
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<div class="entry hentry" id="entry-5457"><span class="timestamp published" title="2009-04-03T03:00:36-04:00"><span class="date"><font color="#808080" size="1">April 3, 2009, 3:00 am</font></span></span>
<h3 class="entry-title"><a title="Permanent Link to Fat Government" href="http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/03/fat-government/" rel="bookmark"><font color="#990000">Fat Government</font></a></h3>
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<p><strong>Nickname for Benjamin Netanyahu’s ministry-bloated Israeli government.</strong></p>
<p>“<a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/n/benjamin_netanyahu/index.html"><font color="#990000">Benjamin Netanyahu’s</font></a> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/21/world/middleeast/21israel.html"><font color="#990000">coalition negotiations</font></a> have rewarded us with many absurdities: Avigdor Lieberman as foreign minister; Yisrael Beiteinu in charge of the Public Security Ministry; and <strong>the reverse somersault of Ehud Barak</strong>,” Yossi Verter wrote in <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1074812.html"><font color="#990000">Haaretz</font></a>.</p>
<p style="PADDING-LEFT: 30px">But we may not have witnessed the grand finale yet: If last night’s prognoses become reality and we wake up this morning to a cabinet of <strong>29 ministers and six deputy ministers</strong> (for parts of ministries and new ministries), we will know that this is not the dawn of a new day, and that nothing has changed.</p>
<p style="PADDING-LEFT: 30px">What Barak and Ariel Sharon did before him, Netanyahu proved he can do more: more bloated, more wasteful, more hedonistic. Whatever the cost, so long as the lads are happy. …</p>
<p style="PADDING-LEFT: 30px">In 1996 Netanyahu set up a <strong>slim government</strong> with only 18 ministers. He was always proud of that, and justifiably so. Because he insisted on the principle of an efficient and thrifty government, he was dragged into World War III with Silvan Shalom, who did not get a spot in that cabinet.</p>
<p style="PADDING-LEFT: 30px">Thirteen years later Netanyahu is setting up a <strong>fat government</strong> with lots of ministries, and only one thing remains unchanged: the fight with Silvan.</p>
<p>(When Avigdor Lieberman became Netanyahu’s first coalition partner some commentators <a href="http://jta.org/news/article/2009/03/17/1003789/what-accounts-for-avigdor-liebermans-meteoric-rise"><font color="#990000">nicknamed</font></a> the emerging government the <strong>Biberman Administration</strong> — a portmanteau of Netanyahu’s nickname, “Bibi,” and Lieberman. See also, <a href="http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/02/the-obibi-effect/"><font color="#990000">The Obibi Effect</font></a>.)</p>
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