Interesting phrasing

[Jonathan Lighter]

I meant to imply only that saying the quake "was felt in 22 states and
Canada," without specifying whether it was felt by actual human beings in
all 22, makes it seem far worse than it was.

As do the inevitable maps highlighting the full territory of all 22 states,
which makes it look like the quake set people vibrating all along the
Mississippi and on Lake Superior's northwestern shore.

Anyway, Verizon still wasn't "in the middle of an earthquake."  If Richard
Young was scared out of his wits when he said so, however, I'm willing to
cut him some slack.

JL


On Wed, Aug 24, 2011 at 11:45 AM, Alice Faber <faber at haskins.yale.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Alice Faber <faber at HASKINS.YALE.EDU>
> Organization: Haskins Laboratories
> Subject:      Re: Interesting phrasing
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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:
> >
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> >> 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-)
> >>
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> Alice Faber                                    faber at haskins.yale.edu
> Haskins Laboratories                           tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
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