Hurricane Sandy

[Wilson Gray]

On Mon, Oct 29, 2012 at 8:04 AM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Yeah, but an idiot could think that "storm surge" just means the storm
> suddenly gets stronger and goes crazy, but "water rise" obviously means the
> water rises.
>
> Ya gotta learn to think like they do, Wilson.

[*Try* Doan's Pills!] Good advice!

Still, ya gotta wonder why this potential for misunderstanding on the
part of the non-meteorological polloi didn't occur to them dekkids
ago.

But why explain first that "water-rise" is the new "storm-surge and
then explain that "storm-surge" means "whatever," when it would be
simpler merely to explain the meaning of "water-rise" *or* to explain
the meaning of "storm-surge"?

As my mother says,

"Well, they *can't*, because it would be too much like *right*!"
--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org