language at the Health Care Summit

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:48 PM -0500 3/2/10, Alison Murie wrote:
>On Mar 2, 2010, at 12:46 AM, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
>>Subject:      Re: language at the Health Care Summit
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>Now on Word Routes:
>>
>>http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/2191/
>>
>>
>>On Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 3:21 PM, Victor Steinbok
>><aardvark66 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>Well, THAT happened.
>>>
>>>I did assume that he made a simple switch, but it was too good to
>>>ignore.
>>>
>>>    VS-)
>>>
>>>On 2/26/2010 2:44 PM, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>>>>On Thu, Feb 25, 2010 at 12:51 PM, victor steinbok<aardvark66 at gmail.com
>>>>>   wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>Eric Cantor, a few seconds ago: We have a bridge to gap
>>>>>
>>>>>I am wondering what it's going to look like in the transcript.
>>>>>
>>>>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/25/AR2010022503128.html
>>>>"We, again, have a very difficult bridge to gap here, because I know
>>>>that this is something that we don't want to look at."
>>>>
>>>>Confirmed by audio here:
>>>>http://www.c-spanarchives.org/program/292260-1
>>>>
>>>>But Cantor later tweeted:
>>>>
>>>>http://twitter.com/GOPWhip/status/9638256321
>>>>"We have a very difficult gap to bridge here. We just can't afford
>>>>this. That's the ultimate problem."
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>--Ben Zimmer
>~~~~~~~~~~
>It may not have  been at the health care circus, but in some context
>concerning the dolorous state of affairs for the many who have been
>hard hit by current conditions, I heard a woman winding up an account
>of losses (of job, health, money, house,&c.) with the words "we're
>circling the drain."  This is a new one to me.  Do others know it?
>AM
>
Yup, that's been around for awhile; very evocative.  Now "draining
the circle" would be a new one on me.

LH

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