shocked = 'pleasantly surprised'

[Jonathan Lighter]

> Although youneverknow.

In this case I do know. Intonation - affect - and three of four co-yakkers
agreed that Seth sounded great.

JL

On Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 8:29 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: shocked = 'pleasantly surprised'
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Feb 25, 2013, at 7:15 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>
> > At 2/25/2013 04:43 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >> We've mentioned this before, but here's another good one. A yakking
> head on
> >> CNN says he was "shocked" to hear Seth McFarlane's singing voice at the
> >> Acade--- I mean at the Oscars.
> >
> > So was Claude Rains.  Pleasantly surprised, surprised, I mean.  He
> > was expecting his winnings shortly.
> >
> > Joel
> >
> Ah, but the good Captain Louie was *pretending* to be unpleasantly
> surprised, surprised, or even scandalized, scandalized at the evidence of
> gambling.  The CNN guy presumably was not being ironic at the evidence of
> holding a tune.  Although youneverknow.
>
> LH
>
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