"kissy-face"

[Gerald Cohen]

    Last week I presented an example of "smacky-face" in a macho
context in a Wall Street Journal article (interrogation of al Qaeda
prisoners).  Here now is "kissy-face" in a Wall Street Journal letter
to the editor, March 6, 2003, Section A, p. 13, cols. 1-2; it
concerns CBS reporter Dan Rather's recent interview of Saddam Hussein
in Baghdad:

   "This entire episode has nothing to do with Saddam: it's all about
Dan.  Remember Mike Wallace's kissy-face meeting with the Ayatollah
years ago, There's Mr. Wallace, kneeling on a pillow, head to the
side, gazing up as Khomeini seriously intoned some sort of nonsense.
Mr. Rather must have been moved by that scene, because his visit
closely paralleled Mr. Wallace's.

    That's a real pair: Mike Wallace and Dan Rather.  They define news
by how it orbits around them."

*******

     The only time I had previously heard "kissy-face" was from Phil Donohue
on one of his shows some 10 years ago. He was referring in a cutesy way to
romantic activity. Interesting that as our country gears up for war
and deals with the al Qaeda threat, cutesy language is starting to
emerge in our political dialogue.

Gerald Cohen