battleship

[Bill Palmer]

And, as I have previously mentioned, referred to the crewmembers of these
"battleships" as "soldiers"

Bill Palmer

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Hause" <dwhause at JOBE.NET>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Monday, April 13, 2009 11:05 PM
Subject: Re: battleship


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dave Hause <dwhause at JOBE.NET>
> Subject:      Re: battleship
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> These would probably be the same "reporters" who describe any armored,
> tracked, vehicle as a "tank."
> Dave Hause, dwhause at jobe.net
> Waynesville, MO
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "James A. Landau <JJJRLandau at netscape.com>"
> <JJJRLandau at NETSCAPE.COM>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Monday, April 13, 2009 5:06 PM
> Subject: Re: battleship
>
>
> On Sun, 12 Apr 2009 10:27:37 Zulu - 0700 a wide-awake Easter Bunny named
> Dave Wilton <dave at WILTON.NET> wrote:
>
> Yes, the AP in particular seems to have gotten sloppy with their usage.
> (Maybe they could actually get advertising revenue and not have to
> restrict their content if they improved the quality of their reporting.
> Here's an idea: hire reporters and editors who know what they're writing
> about instead of hacks out of journalism school.)
>
> Today, Reuters made the mistake, referring to US warships off Somalia as
> "battleships"
> (http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKWAT01127220090412).
>
> On Sun, 12 Apr 2009 13:34:40 Zulu - 0400 another equally alert Easter
> bunny
> name "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET> wrote:
>
> At the time when there was only one "battleship" near the lifeboat, I
> heard (or possibly read) a report that the U.S. Navy had surrounded it.
>
> Reply:
>
> One news report this morning (I failed to note who) said that the snipers
> fired "from the rear of the ship".  The average landlubber would snear at
> that one.
>
> (OT: something not yet reported, to my knowledge, is that a very rare and
> possibly unique event in naval history occurred: a warship fired on a
> lifeboat it had in tow)
>
> A pet peeve of mine: misuse of the word "sniper".  A sniper is a person
> who
> takes careful aim at his target before firing, as those snipers on the
> Bainbridge must have done.
>
> However, numerous news reports from the Third World have referred to
> "sniper
> fire" as if it were an everyday occurrence.  Yet almost never do we hear
> of
> anyone getting hit, much less killed, by said sniper fire.  If Ms. Clinton
> had really been under sniper fire in Bosnia, as she claimed, there would
> have been bodies piled up around her airplane, quite possibly including
> hers.
>
> It would seem that reporters have turned "sniper fire" from "careful,
> aimed
> fire intended to kill specific targets" into its near-antonym of "random
> and
> frequently harmless gunfire".
>
> Another, related peeve is that reporters invariably refer to any rifle
> with
> the easily-recognizable Kalashnikov profile (including the rifles carried
> by
> the pirates) as an "AK-47".  There are at least three rifles in the "AK"
> ("Aftomat Kalashnikov", Kalishnokov being the man who designed them)
> series,
> the AK-47, the AKM, and the AK-74.  At the beginning of the Vietnam War
> the
> Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army both carried AK-47's, but I'm sure
> that by the end of the war some carried AKM's.
>
> Aside: most of those perpetrators of alleged "sniper fire" probably use
> Kalashnikovs, which are excellent all-around rifles except for one
> short-coming: they are mediocre sniping rifles (due to Kalashnikov having
> designed them with mediocre-to-useless rifle sights which nobody has ever
> bothered to correct).
>
> OT:
> http://www.thestreet.com/story/10484571/1/aig-bailout-not-a-gift-to-goldman.html
> used the word "liquefy" twice, once as
>
> "the Maiden Lane III transaction arranged for AIG by the Federal Reserve.
> Maiden Lane was a way for AIG to liquefy exposure it already had on its
> books."
>
> and once as
>
> "Now, many people have suggested that the counterparties should have taken
> a
> haircut. But keep in mind, AIG did get to liquefy its risk outside the
> scope
> of the contract"
>
> Is "liquefy" a valid piece of financial jargon?  If so, does it mean
> "liquidate" or "make liquid"?
>
> I've only once (1970) heard "liquefy" used in finance and that was as a
> joke: "The Air Reduction Company is in trouble.  It's liquefying its
> assets
> and its inventory consists of thin air".
>
>           James A. Landau
>           test engineer
>           Northrop-Grumman Information Technology
>           8025 Black Horse Pike, Suite 300
>           West Atlantic City NJ 08232 USA
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>
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