crash blossom: "accuses critics of blood libel"

[Jonathan Lighter]

If "blood libel" were in OED, perhaps the irenic and usually well-informed
Gov. Palin would have chosen other words.

JL

On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 12:20 PM, Michael Covarrubias
<mcovarru at purdue.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Michael Covarrubias <mcovarru at PURDUE.EDU>
> Subject:      crash blossom: "accuses critics of blood libel"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "Sarah Palin accuses critics of 'blood libel'"
>
> i first read this headline as claiming that palin had accused those people
> who were critical of her use of the phrase "blood libel."
>
> tho my first reading would be a use of "accuse" with only one object, that
> i see, but not as often.
>
> the article
> http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70B3W320110112
>
> michael
>
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