"let ourselves off the hook"?

[Joel S. Berson]

Yes, a "rather than" would make the sentence understandable.  But
that illustrates my point -- his sentence expresses the idiom in the
opposite sense to its "generally accepted meaning".  Regardless of
what he may have intended.

Joel

At 2/18/2010 06:49 PM, Lisa Galvin wrote:
>
>Sorry, small correction:  rather than referring to a broken tenure
>system, he was referring to the issue of faculty mental health.
>Either way, he's afraid people will look at Amy Bishop's case as
>something so extreme that surely it's not a general problem.
>
>It seems also that he should have said "...instead of using this..."
>rather than "...in using this.."
>
>Lisa
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > Date: Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:40:33 -0800
> > From: lisagal23 at HOTMAIL.COM
> > Subject: Re: "let ourselves off the hook"?
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster: Lisa Galvin <lisagal23 at HOTMAIL.COM>
> > Subject: Re: "let ourselves off the hook"?
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > =20
> > After several minutes of reading and re-reading this sentence (I
> admit it's=
> > hard to parse)=2C I have come to the conclusion that the answer may lie in=
> > his referral to the personal story of Amy Bishop. He is concerned that peo=
> > ple will say she was an anomaly--i.e.=2C it was her fault for
> being "bizarr=
> > e"=2C rather than admit that the university/tenure system is broken.
> >
> >
> > Lisa Galvin =20
> >
> >
> >
> > =20
> >
> > > Date: Thu=2C 18 Feb 2010 18:18:56 -0500
> > > From: Berson at ATT.NET
> > > Subject: "let ourselves off the hook"?
> > > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > >=20
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------=
> > ------
> > > Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > > Subject: "let ourselves off the hook"?
> > >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> > ------
> > >=20
> > > David Yamada=2C director of the New Workplace Institute at Suffolk
> > > University {Mass.] Law School=2C is quoted as saying "My concern is
> > > that the increasingly bizarre nature behind Amy Bishop's personal
> > > story may allow us to let ourselves off the hook in using this as a
> > > wake-up call to take faculty mental health issues more
> > > seriously." [Boston Globe=2C Feb. 18=2C 2010.]
> > >=20
> > > I can't make out the "let ourselves off the hook" here. My
> > > interpretation of that phrase is that whatever event is being
> > > referred to has enabled us to escape doing something. E.g.=2C "to
> > > allow someone to escape from a difficult situation or to avoid doing
> > > something that they do not want to do"=2C attributed to the Cambridge
> > > Idioms Dictionary=2C 2nd ed.=2C 2006.
> > >=20
> > > Here Yamada seems to mean the reverse -- this case will *require* us
> > > to pay attention to mental health issues.
> > >=20
> > > He can't be referring to a telephone being "off the hook" as meaning
> > > the line has been engaged=2C something *is* being done? Seems unlikely
> > > -- Yamada is saying the issue *needs* attention=2C not *is* being
> > > attended to. (And anyway=2C no one at a "New Workplace" institute can
> > > possibly be old enough to remember telephones attached by hooks
> to walls.=
> > )
> > >=20
> > > Joel
> > >=20
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > =
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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