"clusterfrig"

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Tue Apr 17 00:30:53 UTC 2012


On Apr 16, 2012, at 8:13 PM, Arnold Zwicky wrote:

> On Apr 16, 2012, at 5:02 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>
>>> 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".
>
> check out Sheidlower 3rd ed. on clusterfuck.  first sense 'orgy'.  second:
>
>  Military.  a bungled or confused undertaking or situation; mess …
>
> cites from 1969 on.
>
> arnold
>
On the Daily Show, Jon Stewart has long been fond of presenting updates on election (or more strictly nomination) campaigns under, or over, the rubric

CLUSTERF*CK TO THE WHITE HOUSE

LH

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