to "reference": Kafkaesque

[Jonathan Lighter]

Now that I can read the transcript of the show [
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122372396] I must
agree, si, si!

My diminishing brain, astounded at "referenced that," picked the wrong hotel
(it's happened before, but that's a very 'nother story).  Sadly, the
substantial linguistic point remains.

JL

On Mon, Jan 11, 2010 at 10:44 PM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: to "reference": Kafkaesque
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Whereas the allusion is to "Hotel California", not "The Hot l Baltimore".
> Si?
>
> m a m
>
> On Fri, Jan 8, 2010 at 6:18 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> >wrote:
>
> > NPR this evening read a letter from a seemingly educated devotee pointing
> > out an inaccurate cultural reference:
> >
> > "[So and so] referenced that Congress is becoming 'like the Hotel
> > Baltimore:
> > "You can check in but you can't check out."'"
> >
> > Right, Roach Motels. (Hmmm. The allusion becomes ever more
> appropriate....)
> >
> > But the point is that to "reference (that)" means to "say while making a
> > reference."  I don't doubt that one can also "allude (that)," but I'll
> > leave
> > that quest to others.
> >
> > In a seemingly unrelated development, CNN's Rick Sanchez alluded whether
> > Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio's alleged habit of harassing local critics of
> > his
> > brand of lawnorder is "possibly Kafkaesque."
> >
> > Yeah, possibly, but my understanding of "Kafkaesque" doesn't to apply to
> > anything Joe is likely to have done unless he's a master of the sinister,
> > the futile, and the weird all three.
> >
> > Cf. Pam to Alvy in _Annie Hall_ (1977): "Sex with you is a Kafkaesque
> > experience. I mean that as a compliment."
> >
> > 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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"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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