went walkabout

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:47 PM -0400 6/24/09, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>Perhaps I misunderstood who said what, and who was suggesting
>what.  I thought the TPM correspondent had used "walkabout".  But if
>that was only Laurence Horn, and the TPM correspondent merely said
>"hiking the Appalachian Trail", my comment becomes  --  did the TPM
>correspondent actually suggest that that would become a
>euphemism?  And (especially) for what?  Being absent from one's
>duties for five days without saying where one was (and providing a
>false explanation)?  Or more presciently, for being with ones
>illicit paramour?
>
>Joel

No, the sequence was that the TPM guy (actually, "SP", who wrote in
response to TPM, as my earlier message indicated) suggested that
"hike the Appalachian Trail" could be a nice euphemism, but it wasn't
clear at that stage for what--the illicit paramour bit hadn't broken
until today.  I thought it was impressive to have noted a
euphemism-to-be in that way.  "Walkabout" wasn't part of SP's posted
message, which Ben provided the link to:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/06/coining_a_phrase.php

It is confusing, but blame it on Sanford, not us.

LH

>
>At 6/24/2009 08:52 PM, Victor wrote:
>>There is something missing in translation--the TPM correspondent
>>suggested "hiking the Appalachian Trail" to be the new euphemism, not
>>anything referring to "walkabout".
>>
>>Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>>Or was he just lucky?  The story put out (at an early time) was that
>>>Sanford was hiking in the Appalachians -- that could have suggested
>>>walking about.
>>>
>>>Joel
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org