FW: 'Hot seat" definition is wrong (Monday's Rachel Maddow Show)

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

Barry Popik shared the following message with a few ads-l members, and with his permission I now share it
with the ads-l listserv.

Gerald Cohen

From: Barry Popik <bapopik at aol.com>
To: rachel <rachel at msnbc.com>
Cc: newsbustersnoel <newsbustersnoel at gmail.com>; doug.ross
<doug.ross at gmail.com>
Sent: Mon, Oct 15, 2012 9:18 pm
Subject: 'Hot seat" definition is wrong (Monday's Rachel Maddow Show)

If you're doing a pre-scripted television segment and need a definition
of "hot seat," wouldn't you look it up in a dictionary? Wouldn't you
call someone who works at a dictionary to get it right? Why would you
guess on the air and tell your viewers that it's one of those American
terms that no one knows anything about?
...
...
"Hot seat" has nothing to do with the lighting in an interrogation
room. Most interrogations are in normal room lighting to keep the
person at ease and not to create an additional distraction. "Hot seat"
is an extension from "electric chair." A light bulb in a room making a
seat burning hot--I don't think so. Heck, light doesn't usually
directly hit the seat because someone's sitting on it or because the
seat is shielded by a table.

Barry Popik
Austin, TX
...
...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show#49425263
How would Republicans prosecute rape victims? - Video on - Msn
video.msnbc.msn.com/the-rachel-maddow-show/494252631 day ago – Video on
NBCNews.com: Rachel Maddow surveys the number of ... the term " hot
seat " is one of those american i had yoms (terms--BP) for which nobody
really ... case is maybe interrogation under bright lights so they
would be hot and



-----Original Message-----
From: Barry Popik <bapopik at aol.com>
To: rachel <rachel at msnbc.com>
Cc: newsbustersnoel <newsbustersnoel at gmail.com>; doug.ross
<doug.ross at gmail.com>
Sent: Mon, Oct 15, 2012 9:18 pm
Subject: 'Hot seat" definition is wrong (Monday's Rachel Maddow Show)

On Monday's Rachel Maddow Show, you attempted to define "hot seat" in a
scripted segment of the show. ... You defined it as the heat of the lights from
interrogations.
...
You didn't have to guess. You could have asked me. Or, you could have
opened up a dictionary. It's that simple.
...
"Hot seat" has long been a term for the electric chair. The seat in an
interrogation room is called the "hot seat" because it's being compared
to the electric chair. It doesn't matter what the lighting is.

...
Barry Popik
Austin, TX
www.barrypopik.com
...
(Oxford English Dictionary)
hot seat, n.
1. U.S. colloq. = electric chair n. at electric adj. and n. Special
uses 1b. Cf. hot adj. 9h.
1925   Waterloo (Iowa) Evening Courier 18 May 1/6,   I will never die
in the hot seat. I have friends who will save me.
2. orig. U.S. A position of responsibility, esp. one in which
difficulties are faced and towards which public attention is directed.
Cf. hot adj. 9b.
1930   Evening Independent (Massillon, Ohio) 13 Nov. 10/1   The hot
seat, upon which Mr. Joseph McCarthy wriggled in pain for a week or so
in the closing days of the ultra-dramatic National league pennant race
in September, has a new occupant.

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