Olive Garden Repents!

[Jonathan Lighter]

That's why we're so culinary-advanced.

But isn't this formation (adjective + past participle) on
the extraordinarily weird side?

I can remember (1983 it was) when "user-friendly" first made me gag.

This is worse, because it's even more crazily succinct.  But at least it
lacks the adspeak insinuation that a structure of circuits and
microprocessors wants to be friendly - to you or any other being of flesh
and blood.

JL

On Thu, Jul 14, 2011 at 1:41 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Olive Garden Repents!
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Thu, Jul 14, 2011 at 9:42 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
> > Well, it certainly worked for "pepperoni", which was a similar American
> invention "rooted in the Italian inspiration... chefs draw from when
> developing these dishes".
> >
>
> So, pepperoni is as American as apple pie and chop suey? Good to know.
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
> to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
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