[Ads-l] Engineering amazing

[Jonathan Lighter]

These are so common now that there's almost no point in reporting more of
them.

It's syntactical more than lexical.

Quicken Loans commercial: "we're supposed to do scary. Without scary, we
don't get to be brave."

So man up and go into debt.

JL

On Tue, Dec 31, 2013 at 3:50 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Engineering amazing
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> From the colorful label of So-Be Elixir Orange Carrot:
>
> "Pow! Only amazing happens when orange meets carrot. Loaded with
> antioxidant vitamins A+C+E so you can fight the gnarly and feel the love.
> Cuz our Love is strong. Naturally sweetened with sugar."
>
> All carrots are orange, but this is a mixture of juices, not colors.  Note
> the nominal "gnarly" as well. And the bonus assurance that Sugar is Strong
> Love cuz it's natural.
>
> JL
>
>
> On Mon, Apr 1, 2013 at 9:58 PM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu
> >wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: Engineering amazing
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > On Mon, Apr 1, 2013 at 7:19 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > >
> > > On Mon, Apr 1, 2013 at 5:28 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
> > >
> > > > On Mon, Apr 1, 2013 at 5:09 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > CNN said yesterday that you might want to "get your sexy back" by
> > losing
> > > > > ten pounds "in time for summer."
> > > > >
> > > > > Then some tanned, young, trim guy with surfer hair appeared to tell
> > you in
> > > > > detail how to "get your sexy back."
> > > >
> > > > Perhaps you missed the memo, Jon. Justin Timberlake was "bringing
> sexy
> > > > back" in
> > > > 2006.
> > > >
> > > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexyback
> > >
> > > JT's song is called "SexyBack." The CNN people were unmistakably
> > > pronouncing it as two words ("get your *sexy* back"), and they made it
> > > clear that "your sexy" was something you used to have before you made a
> > hog
> > > of yourself.
> >
> > The first line of the song is "I'm bringin' sexy back." Any reference to
> > the
> > return of said "sexy" is very likely a conscious allusion to the song.
> >
> > For a discussion of the syntactic peculiarity of the title, see:
> >
> >
> http://semanticcompositions.typepad.com/index/2007/02/im_bringin_synt.html
> > http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/005333.html
> > http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1104
> >
> > --bgz
> >
> > --
> > Ben Zimmer
> > http://benzimmer.com/
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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>



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"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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