File under: Say it ain't so

[Jonathan Lighter]

This usage may be notable too:


"The manuscript evidence offers a different face for Jane Austen, one
smoothed out in the famous printed novels."


If "aspect" is meant (and it may be) the preposition "for" seems quite odd.
If something like "publicity image" is meant, I'm not sure that it's in the
OED, though surely it's frequent enough.

Cf. (evidently) 1972 in GB:  "Here, the Pulitzer Prize winner offers a new
face for the American dream."  And this, from 2004: "Donahue, the memo said,
offered 'a difficult face for MSNBC in a time of war. He seems to delight in
presenting guests who are antiwar, anti-Bush and skeptical of the
administration's motives.'"

Relevant GB exx. of "offered a * face for" are all quite recent.

JL

On Sat, Oct 23, 2010 at 1:58 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: File under: Say it ain't so
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Note too Prof. Sutherland's use of "unpick" to mean "undo" (generally).
> (OED
> allows for a "fig." sense, but the below has no metaphorical context):
>
>
> "Austen's unpublished manuscripts unpick her reputation for perfection in
> various ways: we see blots, crossings out, messiness -- we see creation as
> it happens, and in Austen's case, we discover a powerful
> counter-grammatical
> way of writing."
>
> Fascinating is the gratuitously defensive phrase, "a powerful
> counter-grammatical way of writing." All writers (with the famously alleged
> exception of Shakespeare) blot, cross out, etc., all the time. Irrespective
> of any later editorial improvement, that is not a weakness in Jane Austen's
> writing. It just shows she had no word-processor.
>
> BTW, a second look an hour later reveals that Yahoo has nonsexistically
> replaced the invidious "male editor" headline.
>
> JL
>
> On Sat, Oct 23, 2010 at 1:16 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> >wrote:
>
>  > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: File under: Say it ain't so
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > What a wimpy headline. Try this:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20101023/ten-jane-austen-novels-polished-by-mal=
> > e-a56114e.html
> >
> >
> > "Jane Austen novels 'polished by male editor'"
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Sat, Oct 23, 2010 at 12:57 PM, Paul Frank <paulfrank at post.harvard.edu
> > >wr=
> > ote:
> >
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       Paul Frank <paulfrank at POST.HARVARD.EDU>
> > > Subject:      File under: Say it ain't so
> > >
> > >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> > ------
> > >
> > > "Jane Austen's style might not be hers, academic claims"
> > >
> > > <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11610489>
> > >
> > > Paul Frank
> > > Translator
> > > Chinese, German, French, Italian > English
> > > Espace de l'Europe 16
> > > Neuch=E2tel, Switzerland
> > > paulfrank at bfs.admin.ch
> > > paulfrank at post.harvard.edu
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
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> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --=20
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
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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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>



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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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