CNN follies

[Laurence Horn]

On Nov 11, 2011, at 8:06 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> Correct!  But don't forget "This [news] report contains scenes of a
> graphic nature" and CDs labeled "Explicit lyrics."

My favorite is still "substance-free dorms/floors".
>
> If "ancestor" can come to mean "descendant" as well, why shouldn't
> "amputee" come to mean "a person born without one or more limbs"?

--especially once those "personhood" amendments pass.  After all, if you're a person at conception, as long as God removes your limbs before birth, you're a congenital amputee.

> Not
> that I'm endorsing either development, but my lack of endorsement
> won't stop anybody.
>
> So...what precisely do "graphic" and "explicit" mean in the CNN sentences?
>
>
it's just "sexually"-deletion (no body parts harmed)

LH
>
>
> On Fri, Nov 11, 2011 at 7:56 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: CNN follies
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> You can thank the overuse of "graphic violence" for the first one. The
>> second one is contracted from "chronically ill veterans". There is no
>> excuse for the third and the fourth may well be avoidance of the same use
>> of "graphic".
>>
>> VS-)
>>
>> On Fri, Nov 11, 2011 at 7:49 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>> Spot and define the strange item in each sentence, all heard today on CNN:
>>>
>>> "He witnessed a graphic sexual act betwen Sandusky and a ten-year-old boy."
>>>
>>> "It's mainly the chronic veterans that are homeless."
>>>
>>> "He's a congenital amputee, born without arms or legs."
>>>
>>> "He saw an explicit and horrible act."
>>>
>>> ("A graphic act" was used at least twice, many hours apart, by
>>> different speakers.)
>>>
>>> JL
>>>
>>
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>>
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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