the perils of accidental blending

[Wilson Gray]

FWIW, I don't think that he deserved to be fired.

-Wilson

On 3/25/06, Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at ohio.edu> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: the perils of accidental blending
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Accidental blending, or a Freudian slip?
>
> At 11:32 PM 3/23/2006, you wrote:
> >St. Louis sports radio host Dave Lenihan got fired yesterday for using
> >the word "coon" while discussing the possibility of Condoleezza Rice
> >becoming NFL commissioner. But given the context, it seems he
> >accidentally blended "coup" and "boon":
> >
> >"She's been chancellor at Stanford. I mean she's just got the patent
> >resume of somebody that's got some serious skill. She loves football.
> >She's African-American, which would kind of be a big coon ... A big
> >coon? Oh my god. I am totally, totally, totally, totally, totally
> >sorry for that. OK? I didn't mean that. That was just a slip of the
> >tongue."
> >
> >Full story, with audio link, here:
> >
> http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/AD472B79A45C0CEB86257139006ED837?OpenDocument
> >
> >Bloggers are arguing quite a bit about whether the firing was
> justified...
> >http://google.com/blogsearch?q=lenihan
> >
> >
> >--Ben Zimmer
> >
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> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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