Rumsfeld won't have the guillotine "float down"?

[Joel S. Berson]

Thanks, Ben, for the transcript.

Having grown up in NY, NY, I distinguish from a
large repertoire of English phonemes.  I too
heard "float", to the best of my aural memory
(haven't listened to a replay) -- not flo, or flaw, or ... .

"Float" is snazzy?!

Joel

At 10/27/2006 01:10 PM, JL wrote:
>I heard "float down" a few minutes ago on the replay.
>
>   I think he was just groping for a snazzy
> synonym for "come down."  As a big official,
> he's expected to have a fabulous vocabulary.
>
>   JL
>
>
>
>Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the
> mail header -----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: Benjamin Zimmer
>Subject: Re: Rumsfeld won't have the guillotine "float down"?
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>On 10/27/06, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> >
> > Did Donald Rumsfeld really say in his press conference yesterday
> > (Oct. 26), after commenting that he would not impose deadlines on
> > Iraq, something like "would you have the guillotine *float down* on
> > them"? Either I missed a clever, subtle metaphor for imposing
> > deadlines slowly (unlikely from Rumsfeld?), or this image is
> > (another?) indication of his disconnect from reality.
>
>http://www.defenselink.mil/Transcripts/Transcript.aspx?TranscriptID=3772
>"Now, you're looking for some sort of a guillotine to come flowing
>down if some date isn't met."
>
>Float down, flow down, either way it's weird.
>
>
>--Ben Zimmer
>
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