"clusterfrig"

[Joel S. Berson]

At 4/16/2012 07:50 PM, Arnold Zwicky wrote:
>On Apr 16, 2012, at 4:37 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> >
> > Today's "Doonesbury" is quoted in Language Log,
> > http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3905, by Mark Liberman, but
> > without definition, or discussion except the implication that it's a
> > euphemism.  Or perhaps Mark is referring to the entire utterance,
> > "Straight up? The war's a freaking clusterfrig", in which case he may
> > mean that "freaking" is the euphemism.
> >
> > 'Tain't in Urban Dictionary; #tagdef http://tagdef.com/poschterfrig
> > also treats it as not needing explanation (a "poschterfrig" is "A
> > failure far worse than a clusterfrig."); and it is not found by
> Google Books.
> >
> > Please define, state what it is a euphemism for, and add to the
> > OED.  I don't think I can rely on "the idiot"s (Roland Burton Hedley,
> > III's) tweeted transcription of "Soldier: Gains are fragile!"
>
>clusterfuck

Worse than a snafu?  But not as serious as a "poschterfrig"?  (And
what's a "poschter"?  Apparently I don't tweet enough.)

And so the soldier's statement is "The war's a fucking
clusterfuck"?  Is this a bit like "stye in my eye"?

Thanks, Arnold.  I did know "frig", as in "friggin"", but I wasn't
sure about the combination with "cluster".

Joel

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