Interesting phrasing

[Alice Faber]

This is, of course, off topic. However, my office building, some 4
states away, swayed ominously (felt like being on a small boat on choppy
water), and, after we made our way down 9 flights of stairs, there was
only intermittent cell signal for about an hour.

On 8/24/11 9:54 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> You're too tolerant.
>
> "In the middle of an earthquake," when the quake is over, implies that
> there's so much act-of-God chaos at Verizon HQ that *of course* they haven't
> fixed it.
>
> BTW, the news claims (truthfully, I suppose) that the quake was "felt" in 22
> states and Canada.
>
> Felt by what super-sensitive devices?  I'm in an adjoining state and neither
> I nor anybody I've asked felt or noticed anything at all.
>
> JL
>
> On Tue, Aug 23, 2011 at 9:29 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:      Interesting phrasing
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> A comment on the cell phone outage in parts of the country today:
>>
>>> When asked why the phone lines weren't working Tuesday afternoon,
>>> Richard Young, a Verizon spokesman simply responded: "We're in the
>>> middle of an earthquake right now, so it's not surprising."
>>
>> Well, that's fine, except that "we"--including Verizon--were not "in the
>> middle of an earthquake" when the comment was made. The earthquake had
>> long passed by then. I am not suggesting that there is anything wrong
>> with the comment--in fact, it seems to be fairly typical shorthand for
>> the "extended event".
>>
>> Take it or leave it...
>>
>> VS-)
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> 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


--
 =============================================================================
Alice Faber                                    faber at haskins.yale.edu
Haskins Laboratories                           tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
New Haven, CT 06511 USA                        fax (203) 865-8963

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