live, adj. = "(of entertainment) thrilling"

Wed Dec 29 18:17:47 UTC 2010

Yeah, Dan & Larry, but you seem to assume that DirecTV just wants to tell it
like it is as concisely as possible.  So naive.  It's an ad!  And it's for
Entertainment!  And you don't expect the old fakeroo?

With the news and sports exceptions, they're not claiming that the shows are
"live" (as we generally understand it) in any way, shape, or form.  The
shows are, presumably, quite unaltered from what you might watch at home,
but those shows aren't "live" either, unless they're being broadcast live.
Does "live" customarily include the notion the you're seeing them in "real
time" at the very instant the person/ robot/ cyborg activates the switch?
My life experience sez no.

And if it were to say yes, that would be a new and fakey use of "live." QED,
OED!

Couldn't they have called it "real TV" or "real-time TV" or something else a
little less, er, self-serving and misleading?  Remember, the ad has
been carefully crafted by persons/ robots/ cyborgs who spend all day trying
to part you from your precious spondulix.

I myself might have popped for six bits, but six smackers?  Puhleeze. That's
a cup of coffee and a down payment on a 1000-calorie bran muffin.

JL

On Wed, Dec 29, 2010 at 6:52 AM, Margaret Lee <mlee303 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Margaret Lee <mlee303 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: live, adj. = "(of entertainment) thrilling"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> In terms of live as thrilling/exciting, the R &B group Lakeside had
> a=A0198=
> 0 hit, "Fantastic Voyage," that says that the party is "live, live, it's
> al=
> l the way live ... forget about your troubles and your 9 to 5 ..."=A0
> =A0
> --Margaret Lee
>
>
> --- On Wed, 12/29/10, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
>
> From: Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: live, adj. =3D "(of entertainment) thrilling"
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Date: Wednesday, December 29, 2010, 1:05 AM
>
>
> Thrilling?
>
> Surely by "live" they mean you are watching the same broadcasts you
> would be able to watch at home, instead of some previously recorded
> (and typically dated) programs.
>
> DanG
>
> On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 7:48 PM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------=
> ------
> > Sender:=A0 =A0 =A0=A0=A0American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >
> > Poster:=A0 =A0 =A0=A0=A0Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:=A0 =A0 =A0 live, adj. =3D "(of entertainment) thrilling"
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ------
> >
> > This could be the "handcrafted" of tomorrow. At the moment it's chiefly
> a=
> n
> > ex. of an ad technique that comes close to ye olde "bait & switch." It
> > probably already has a name, though I don't know offhand what it is.
> >
> > DirecTV offers cable TV channels in flight (on, e.g., Frontier Airlines)
> =
> at
> > six bucks a look.=A0 If you don't slide your credit card, the little
> scre=
> en
> > eighteen inches from your eyes just keeps playing the ad (and a few
> other=
> s)
> > repeatedly, making it difficult to concentrate on anything but the
> screen=
>  or
> > sleeping with your eyes shut.
> >
> > But the point here is that the ad says, "Enjoy Live TV During Your
> > Flight....It's Live TV That You Control....Imagine Live TV at 30,000
> Feet=
> .
> > We did." But in fact the only reasonably "live" TV you can watch is the
> n=
> ews
> > on Fox and CNN, and certain live sporting events that may coincide with
> y=
> our
> > flight schedule.=A0 Nevertheless the ad also claims that you can "Access
> =
> 24
> > Channels of Live DirecTV and our GPS Live Mapchannel."=A0 Yet few of
> thos=
> e 24
> > channels are "live TV," and only the two news channels are "live" most of
> > the time.=A0 (I didn't notice any little "TM" suggesting that the phrase
> =
> "Live
> > DirecTV" might be a service mark, and thus presumably beyond criticism.)
> >
> > Some of the TV you can watch really is "live" in the customary sense, but
> > most is not.=A0 DirecTV seems to be spotlighting the exceptional and
> > trumpeting it as the typical. (See paragraph one.) But "live," in at
> leas=
> t
> > one of the quotes, must mean something like "really terrific" in
> addition=
>  to
> > its "legitimate" TV sense.
> >
> > HDAS includes this hitherto uncommon meaning ("thrilling, exciting,
> > wonderful") from 1978-80. It is nonetheless startling to see it used in
> a=
> n
> > advertisement, in cold blood.=A0 Unless it's far more current than I
> thou=
> ght.
> >
> > At any rate, I find it remarkable, but maybe that's just me.
> >
> > JL
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth=
> ."
> >
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> >
>
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