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[sagehen]

>American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> writes:
>>
>>If someone else mentioned this and I missed seeing it, then sorry. But...
>>I
>>have long wondered why we have a Secretary of de-FENSE and a Department of
>>de-FENSE, but all sports have DEE-fense. I mean, this is universal, right?
>>At a football game the crowd universally does not yell "de-FENSE,
>>de-FENSE,
>>de-FENSE", and Rumsfeld universally was not the secretary of DEE-fense.
>>Yes?
>>No?
>>DAD
>>
>
>Well, I'm not sure I can express this succinctly. Here goes.
>
>The emPHAsis on the first sylLAble in DEEfense is to EMphasize the
>contrast with OFFense in the vicinity of the grid iron.
>
>By the way, since Bush is so preemptively offensively minded, should we
>not rename the DoD the Doo (pun on dog excrement intended)?
>
>Regards,
>David
>
>barnhart at highlands.com
>
~~~~~~~~~~~
 It hadn't the added value of the pun, but in the (good) ol' days, it *was*
the War Department, a franker admission of its role.
AM

 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
W stands for >:<  War ____Waste___Wiretaps____Witchhunts  >:<
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

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