whollop; prevent

Mon Nov 12 18:59:25 UTC 2012

Re: the prevention / avoidance of the fiscal cliff:

Maybe what is sneaking in here is the idea that we have created this landscape, i.e. that the thing to do would be to not have created the cliff in the first place, or that, conversely, it won't really be a cliff until / unless we are already over it?
--
Kate Svoboda-Spanbock

On Nov 12, 2012, at 5:31 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      whollop; prevent
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> A crawl seen several times on CNN yesterday noted that New Jersey and New
> York had been "whollopped by Sandy."
> 
> Today a crawl asks, "Preventing the fiscal cliff?"
> 
> You "prevent" trouble; you "avoid" a cliff.
> 
> And but(t) me no but(t)s.  If it's a cliff in the sentence, it's still a
> cliff.
> 
> BTW, a Tea Party honcho told Soledad O'Brien on Friday that they would
> never "meet the Democrats half way on taxes" because - wait for it - "If
> you go halfway over a cliff, you're still over the cliff."  So no
> compromise permissible.
> 
> JL
> 
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
> 
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