Hurricane Sandy

[Jonathan Lighter]

It occurred to idiots but not to meteorologists -  until enough
meteorologists began to think like idiots.

Also, every time you use the word "surge", you might make people think of
Iraq and Afghanistan, and that could distract them from the
immediately forthcoming commercial.

JL

On Mon, Oct 29, 2012 at 4:27 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Hurricane Sandy
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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
>
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