Possible word of the year

[Eric Nielsen]

I think Dan Quayle had the feather. A play on his name and that he was
considered a lightweight.

"Dan Quayle <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Quayle> - Famously appeared
as a feather, depicting what Trudeau saw as The Vice-President's
lightweight status".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Doonesbury_characters

I can't find any images right now, but I seem to remember (probably
falsely) that the feather hovered around the area of his rear end as if he
had a "feather up his butt"--an idiom whose meaning I only can guess at.
Eric
On Sat, Sep 1, 2012 at 11:42 AM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Possible word of the year
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Not quite invisible--it was a feather.
>
>      VS-)
>
> On 9/1/2012 10:47 AM, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
> > No, but I remember when VP George HW Bush was rendered as invisible
> during
> > Iran-contra.
> >
> > DanG
> >
> >
> > On Sat, Sep 1, 2012 at 10:24 AM, Jonathan Lighter <
> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
> >
> >> Remember when Gary Trudeau routinely depicted G. H. Bush as invisible?
> >>
> >> JL
>
>  ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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