More on substituting

[Jonathan Lighter]

Fox News reports that workers at the Ground Zero site have been getting
drunk on their lunch hour, "taking lunchtime at the local pub, substituting
food for shots and suds!"

The line, as part of a quick news summary, was evidently scripted and not
spontaneous.

So ol am I that even though I get the idea, I still can't "make sense" of
the syntax. It's nightmarish.

JL
On Sat, Aug 6, 2011 at 3:58 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: More on substituting
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The biggest problem I have with the Churchill quote is that it's
> too absurdly optimistic. If he'd said "may be" instead of "will be," I'd
> have no problem.
>
> I'm sure the context of the remark would have modified the sense somewhat
> too.
>
> Hirschbein also seems to believe that  the phrase "balance of terror" was
> turned into "mutually assured destruction" because "terror" required a
> euphemism to keep the  public behind it.
>
> Like
>
> 1. "mutually assured destruction" (aka "MAD") isn't almost equally scary.
>
> 2. the professional users of such terms are so easily distracted that they
> can't remember what they're really talking about.  (I'm sure there were
> some
> Strangelove types, of course.)
>
> 3.  "MAD" ousted "balance of terror" from the strategic lexicon.
>
> Of course the Defense Department (formerly the War Department) is always on
> the lookout, like everybody else, for attractive euphemisms.  But
> Hirschbein's article presents something like a strong Worf-Sapir
> hypothesis, apparently calculated by madmen to fool themselves and everyone
> else,  that makes everything worse than it is already.
>
> To  continue my rant: he also ridicules the proverb, "If you wish for
> peace,
> prepare for war," by suggesting its absolute interchangeability with "If
> you
> wish for war, prepare for war."
>
> It's great when you can sum up war, peace, diplomacy,and MAD in a couple of
> easy-to-remember slogans.  Saves brain work.
>
> JL
>
>
>
> JL
>
> On Sat, Aug 6, 2011 at 12:24 PM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com
> >wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       victor steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: More on substituting
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > BTW, Hirschbein's "plain English" is no substitute for Churchill's
> > original. He simply failed to understand the quote that he based his
> > whole hyperventilating tirade on. In that context, what's a little
> > perversion of a common idiom!
> >
> > VS-)
> >
> > On 8/6/11, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > ...
> > > To show what I mean by "insane," here is the complete context:
> > >
> > > "[Winston Churchill said the following about the H-bomb and the policy
> > > of "mutually assured destruction":] 'By a process of sublime irony,
> [we]
> > > have reached a state where safety will be the sturdy child of terror,
> and
> > > survival the twin brother of annihilation.'
> > >
> > > "Philosophers are a little touchy about language and logic:  eloquence
> > > is no substitute for dubious reasoning. In plain English, Churchill and
> > the
> > > others are saying: _To reduce the risk of nuclear war, the risk must be
> > > increased_."
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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