short takes

[Victor Steinbok]

I've compiled this list over several weeks, although more than half the
entries were added yesterday.

VS-)


1) An NPR program on March 22 (don't know the name of the program--it
was a mid-day program on WBUR) had an interesting substitution:

"The police in Toulouse, France, shot in the head the presumed martyr of
seven people."

Presumably, the "martyr" was intended to be "murderer". The outcome was
essentially "suicide by cop", with the man jumping out the window while
being shot by law enforcement (it's not entirely clear if they were
"police" or whether he really "jumped"). Apparently, initially there was
another graf intended, concerning his self-created martyrdom and the two
probably just got merged into something very odd.

2) A dental services chain in Boston is promoting "Preventistry".

3)
http://goo.gl/lF7FY
Top Chef 9:7 Web Exclusive: Game Over
> It took a while for Naisha's and I's dish to come together...

4)
Top Chef 9:15
> Beverly has already been eliminated once. She has nothing to lose. She
> /is/ that silent horse.

5) The Jezebel post on "rapey" Belvedere ad falls under their category
of "Badvertising". ( http://jezebel.com/badvertising/ )

6) Turns out Jezebel uses "rapey" fairly regularly: http://goo.gl/Iyowu

7) Jezebel also deconstructs "skinny fat" http://goo.gl/hs3t9

One of the comments gets into syntax:

> But this is Jezebel, so your point is essentially fat-phobic in
> itself. By calling someone skinny-fat, you are using fat to modify
> "skinny." Adding fat (mean "unhealthy, out-of-shape") makes skinny
> mean something negative. "Skinny fat" is callin

8) When neurologists turn chefs, their "neuro-gastronomy" doesn't always
work out--even if the food is in the "okayness" zone.

http://goo.gl/3rGQF
> The Times is not done kicking around "neuro-gastronomy" restaurant
> Romera! First, former food critic Frank Bruni took to the paper of
> record's op-ed pages to say the Spanish doctor's joint suffers from
> "food psychosis," and now the paper's new critic, Pete Wells, has
> filed his own one-star dig at the spot. And? "To eat at Romera New
> York is to be told repeatedly that you are in the presence of
> greatness, while the evidence of your senses tells you that you are in
> the presence of, at best, okayness."

9) Add one more Obama portmanteau:

http://goo.gl/8OFeP
> Townhall Columnist Wants Obamapology for 8-Year-Old Murder of White
> Man by Other White Man

10) Another portmanteau with a couple of extra layers (dual meanings of
"can", a bit of play on can/con)

http://goo.gl/31iuq
> The Canstruction canned food sculpture competition has already
> collected more than one million tins of food in its nine-year history,
> enough to make a tuna casserole that would fill an Olympic swimming
> pool. Well, it would if you had a million bags of those crispy chow
> mein noodles.

More info and photos at http://www.canstruction.org/

11) Related to the last one--"foodraiser" for an event that gets food
donations instead of funds.

http://goo.gl/foSsP
> Regina foodraiser shows people 'can' make a difference

12) Yet one more related--potential snowclonelet on "Blood, sweat and X"

http://goo.gl/ZhNhq
> A lot of blood, sweat and cans
> Unusual art projects go to Vancouver food bank

Bonus pun:
> The attitude was all can-do Sunday at the HSBC building in the heart
> of downtown Vancouver.

13) Tim Noah plays "Language Cop" on the current incarnation of the term
"Christian".

http://goo.gl/ot1ok
> What NPR and Fox and Sony mean when they say “Christian” is “Christian
> right” or “Christian conservatives,” terms that adherents don't like
> because they think they're pejorative. “Fundamentalist” and
> “evangelical” are imperfect substitutes because a) the two categories,
> though they overlap a lot, aren't precisely the same; and b) some of
> these folks consider themselves political liberals.

More http://goo.gl/paJk2 http://goo.gl/0wYLC http://goo.gl/qyoXI

14) Revenge of the nerds:

http://goo.gl/j6o6c
> Bernanke takes no offense that Time magazine, in naming him Person of
> the Year for 2009, described him as "the most powerful nerd on the
> planet."
> "I am very proud of my nerd-dom," he tells Sawyer. "In fact, the world
> needs more nerds. Nerds, you know, create more jobs and advance
> science, and I hope make good economic policy, but that remains to be
> seen."

15) I thought this has been commented on before, but I can't find the
relevant references. One current use of the verb "trend" and the
corresponding "trending" is to identify things that are becoming
"trendy", i.e., whose popularity is rising. Given that no example of the
verb in the OED is past 1901, there should be no surprise that this is
not covered.

http://goo.gl/trccs
> 'Eat It, Don't Tweet It' Music Video Smackdown Is Trending

http://goo.gl/lgFVW
> Stockholm's Lunch Beat dance is trending

http://goo.gl/nVZMc
[@bbcapprentice]
> Tap Cosy is trending worldwide! Seems to have struck a chord with
> viewers... #theapprentice

VS-)

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