another "moment" for WOTY consideration

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Thu, Oct 15, 2009 at 10:56 AM, Mark Mandel wrote:
>
> On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 7:13 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>
>>  From Arianna Huffington's argument that Joe Biden should resign and
>> become the point person for opposition to the war in Afghanistan:
>>
>>
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/why-joe-biden-should-resi_b_320929.html
>>
>> Well, Obama has gotten that request, but it wasn't a "Whiskey Tango
>> Foxtrot moment" for him after all.
>>
>> I haven't encountered Whiskey Tango Foxtrot moments before, at least
>> not by name.
>
> I've seen "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot", though not AFAIR modifying "moment", for
> several years at least.

I talk about the history of "WTF (moment)" in this Language Log post, tied to
the new edition of Jesse's book:

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1766

Some of the commenters discuss "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot," but having that modify
"moment" is new to me too.


--Ben Zimmer

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