Meanwhile, back at the ranch the knee is coming along. Rehab therapy has begun, but I confess everytime I say that word Amy Winehouse springs to mind and I have a notion to duct tape a bird’s nest to my head to emulate her hairstylings. I am able to get about slowly without a cane much of the time, which is nice because the cane I have is your basic brown question mark looking metal cane from Rite-Aid. While it serves its purpose, I really wanted a cane with a Lion’s head handle that converted into a sword…sort of like King Willie sports in Predator 2.
Alas, it was not to be…but my silliness about the cane of my dreams is more than offset by the silliness I see out there in politics land…
One of the sad things about pay per ad click blogs is that they often engage in yellow journalism to drive more traffic their way. How else to explain the reaction here and here to Tom Davis using the term “Tar Baby” to describe an intractable obstacle that once involved with is almost impossible to escape? While it has been used as an offensive racial term, Davis’ use of the term was correct and not offensive. I imagine that this term will fall into the same category as “niggardly”, which I discussed last year…and that soon those who argue for freedom of speech will demand that the Uncle Remus stories come off the library shelf.
Now, if folks want to get in an uproar, then I imagine NLS and others will head straight to Cherry Grove, SC, and picket this establishment. But make sure and eat breakfast first, because the food is great.
In other news, the Bwana clan went out on cub scout camping trip this past weekend, and came home with a great appreciation for mag lite flashlights, coleman lanterns, and-wait for it-at least two ticks per person.
Me thinks SWMBO is permanently off of camping trips unless the lodging includes room service…
At the end of each year Lake Superior State University publishes its annual “List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness“. The 2008 version includes such classics as:
Perfect Storm-”Overused by the pundits on evening TV shows to mean just about any coincidence.” Webinar-”Yet another non-word trying to worm its way into the English language due to the Internet. It belongs in the same school of non-thought that brought us e-anything and i-anything.” ‘BLANK’ is the new ‘BLANK’ or ‘X’ is the new ‘Y’-”The idea behind such comparisons was originally good, but we’ve all watched them spiral out of reasonable uses into ludicrous ones and it’s now time to banish them from use.”
I suggest the 2009 list should include “Agent of Change”, “Change agent”, or any other term that tries to make a candidate for office sound special because they want to [ahem] “CHANGE THINGS”.
Why is it silly? Has there ever been a candidate for office who wasn’t running to change something, if only the holder of that office?
The term is silly, pretentious, and not needed.
You want to be a real “change agent”? Go change a messy diaper-as the father of three I can assure that THEN you are truly a change agent worthy of mention!
Thank goodness for people, because they make it easy to write blog pieces. Because some things you just cannot make up.
You see, I appreciate the clever use of language. I enjoy clever advertising. But sometimes you don’t want to combine the two characteristics.
Example: Recently in Texas, the general sales manager of Mac Haik Ford Lincoln Mercury dealership had some high end cars with air conditioned seats to unload. I think it is fair to say that those of us who have experienced the joys of sticky sweat on your back while stuck in a beltway backup can see the benefits of this convenience.
So, he made up a sales flyer and sent it to 1,200 customers. As you can see, the banner of the flyer is:
“Are You Tired of The Wet Backs?”
And those 1,200 customers? Some were members of the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
Needless to say, the chamber members were not amused.
Said general sales manager is now looking for employment.
Some are attacking the dealership, saying that terminating the general sales manager is political correctness run amok.
I believe that Political Correctness has gone too far in this country…but this flyer moves far beyond PC and deep into the realm of the unbelievably stupid.
This flyer is not the ignorant misconstrual of the legitimate use of a longstanding word that has no racial connotations (such as the furor in DC a few years back over a mayoral staffer correctly using the word “niggardly“, a synonym for being stingy, miserly, ungenerous ). This was a deliberate effort to use a racially charged term in a sophomoric attempt to be clever and sell product.
This flyer is not a matter of PC madness. Rather, it is falls under the eternal wisdom of Forrest Gump, who once said, “Stupid is as Stupid does”.
Mr. Bumble in Oliver Twist said “the law is an ass”. I do know the law is often confusing.
In Kansas an illegal immigrant, Nicholas Martinez, was sentenced to a year in jail after pleading guilty to possession of cocaine and endangering a child. A plea agreement was worked out where Mr. Martinez would get a year’s probation. The trial judge tossed the agreement saying Martinez’s immigration status precluded probation. Why?
“Mr. Martinez is illegally in the country and is in violation of the probation rules right from the start if I place him on probation…He has to comply with all the conditions of the probation and he can’t do that because he’s in violation of the law not to violate any federal or state laws.”
In other words, he has already violated federal law by being here, so putting him on probabation makes no sense as he will be violated on the probie charge as soon as he breaks a law-which in his mere presence here he is doing.
So Judge Hannelore Kitts decided to cut out the interm stage. The judge then sentenced Mr. Martinez to a year in jail.
“While Congress has criminalized the illegal entry into this country, it has not made the continued presence of an illegal alien in the United States a crime unless the illegal alien has previously been deported,”
Apparently the only way the judge could have done what he did was if the defendant had already been ordered to be deported, in which case his presence would be illegal. Since this was not done, the case was been sent back to the trial court for fact determination on this issue.
Let’s put aside the fact that the guy plead guilty, and that he pled guilty to possession of cocaine and child endangerment. Shoot, we will even move past court documents that indicate Martinez was caught using his son to help sell cocaine in Barton County, Kansas.
Let’s consider the language and the implications. If this holds up, then it doesn’t matter if you are here illegally, your presence is not actually illegal unless you have been adjudicated to having entered the country illegally and your deportation ordered.
It looks like the guys at BVBL.net have more work in store for them than they thought!
As for me, I remain amazed at how the law can turn a word that you think you know upside down and inside out. I feel like the Vizzini the Sicilian in The Princess Bride. After kidnapping the Buttercup, the fiance to Prince Humperdinck, Vizzini discovers he and his gang are being chased by man clad in black.
No, it was not Johnny Cash.
Time after time the mysterious man evades Vizzini’s efforts to stop him, and each time Vizzini reacts by saying “inconceivable”.
Finally, Inigo Montoya replies: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
At a time when polticians and public figures are often accused of pretense and misdirection, it seems a fair time to point out they all have something to learn from “American Idol” (hereinafter AI) , the popular television talent show teaches us there is one way sure way to put yourself into position to win an election, whether it be for singing superstar or public office: be who you are, not who you think folks want you to be.
But, first let’s backtrack…many of you have already seen this clip of Hillary Clinton speaking in Selma, Alabama:
Senator Clinton spoke at the First Baptist Church in Selma as part of the commemoration of the Montgomery to Selma Civil Rights march that ended in bloodshed at the Edmund Pettis Bridge. After listening to Mrs. Clinton, several commentators suggested she attempted to adopt a “southern accent” as part of her speech. Although I am no Hillary fan, let me state that the suggestion is ridiculous, but it draws attention to why she does need to pay more attention to AI.
One cannot adopt a southern accent. A southern accent is felt deep to the bones, and is the product of living in the region. In fact, I suggest there is actually more than one type of southern accent. The outlander may think they all roll together, but the typical non-southerner will assume you have an accent even if all you do is say “y’all”. I bet you could put your native New Yorker in a room with folks from Tidewater, Richmond, the Piedmont, the Southside, the Valley, and Big Stone Gap and he would identify each one as having a southern accent. What would be ignored is the subtle differences in pitch, pace, and tone that a native of Virginia would readily identify. Imagine the range that would kick in if you included folks from other states in Dixie!
Perhaps the final word is best left to Johnny Cash and Tom Petty, who generations apart once sang:
There’s a southern accent, where I come from
The young’uns call it country, The Yankees call it dumb
I got my own way of talkin’ But everything is done,
with a southern accent Where I come from
What Hillary did attempt to do is to imitate call and respond type speech pattern that is native to the Southern Baptist church and used by a wide number of churches across Dixie. It is easy to recognize but takes a little instinct to accurately execute. The basic idea is that the speaker puts out their idea in a rising ladder of signicance, and audience response grows louder and more involved as the speaker builds toward a mighty conclusion.
I first encountered the style up close and personal at the 1988 Mock Democratic Convention at Washington and Lee University. Mayor Andrew Young of Atlanta, former Congressman and UN Ambassador, was the speaker. I was sitting down front with Powell Starks, a W&L seven year man and native of Louisville, KY.
I noticed that Mayor Young seemed to be getting annoyed with the predominantly anglo crowd, even though it was being respectful and responding frequently with loud applause and cheers. I mentioned this to Powell, who said, “He is upset because we are breaking his rhythmn.”
I said I didn’t understand. Powell said, “Politicians disguise sound bites as speeches. They want to have their speeches broken up by applause, and plan them that way. Mayor Young is an ordained minister…he wants us to to respond in a lower key fashion-and “amen” might not be inappropriate”-while he builds to his conclusion. Then he gets big applause, and he starts in on his next major point. That way he builds up momentum, and part of the momentum is the rhythmn. By applauding as frequently as we are, we are breaking up his rhythm, and that is why he is annoyed.”
If you listen objectively to the Hillary C. clip above you can see that is exactly what she is trying to do. However, this is a pattern and practice that is so identified with the South that when someone who does not have the right accent-instead, has an accent from Chicago cross bred with almost a lifetime in the North-it sounds like an attempt at an imitation. She comes across as trying to be something she is not.
Which brings us back to AI…
Devotees of AI (hello, Vivian!) regularly see the eager applicants attempt to sing songs they like or that they think the judges will like without giving much thought as to whether they can actually sing the song well. Each season someone rolls out Whitney Houston songs and Celine Dion songs, and almost all of them crash and burn because they don’t have the big vocal presence to make it work. Contestants pick songs they like, and not necessarily songs they can sing well. Contestants pick songs they think the judges will like, rather than songs they can sing well. Contestants try to be what they think the judges want to see, instead of being themselves and impressing the judges with their talent.
Political candidates are the same. They do all type of superficial things to make us feel a connection, when what we want is a leader. We want to be impressed by quality of their ideas and the content of their character, and not whether they ate crabcakes in Baltimore or a Po Boy in New Orleans or a Cheese steak in Philly w/o getting cheez whiz on their tie. Those who want to lead us focus on the superficial while ignoring the fundamental. They try to be what the voters want them to be and tell the voters what they think voters want to hear. What we want is for them to be honest and show us who they are and where they want to lead us.
Is is my hope that as the campaign season rolls on toward Election Day 2008 that the ever narrowing number of candidates will consider AI and all those failed contestants who focused on what they thought the judges liked. I hope those that aspire to the nation’s highest offices will choose to trust the will of the voter and not the siren of their ambition, and be straight with us about who they are and where they want to go.
If you don’t, Simon Colwell-the mean AI judge- may just end up with a new career as a political consultant. Hillary, take heed!
This one is not about politics or government, but it is about life its ownself…and the power of language.
Yesteday I visited my father, and was reminded of the extraordinary power of words, storytelling, and how the appreciation of both makes for a fuller life.
My father is a month shy of 83 laps around the sun, and lives in an assisted living facility. He is of the Greatest Generation…in fact, very much so. A farm child of the depression, he went to war in 1942, came back to college on the GI bill, med school on a rural physician’s scholarship, then returned home to Manassas to have a family, build a medical practice, and participate in banking, real estate and property development, church politics, and helped build the Prince William Hospital where he was the second Chief of Staff.
Dad-and this you have to know to see the humor-loves words. During the war, he was unsure he had the foundation skills to get into college, so each night he read the bible or a dictionary or a grammar standard he had to endlessly try to enhance his communication skills. Those dark nights reading by lantern or whateve light was available led him to a lifelong appreciation and embrace of words. At the same time, although a farm boy and a soldier, he always kept his language clean…the strongest word I ever heard him say was “confound it”.
The love of words and language was always there.
Yesterday when visiting him he again told “The Story”, the story that never fails to entertain, the story where-even if only quoting-is the only profanity I have ever heard him use. Again, it amused and entertained, and reminded me of the first time my father- he of the love of language and the clean mouth-told it to me. So I share it with you, with asteriks used appropriately.
I was about fourteen when my father told me. He was in an aid camp in Belgium-imagine a MASH unit with 500-600 beds, and you get the picture. A buzz bomb hit one of recovery tents, and in an instant almost one hundred wounded soldiers were killed. Dad was about fifty feet away when the bomb hit, and the concussion sent him flying. He landed another forty feety away, the wind knocked out of him and purple from sternum to waist with bruises.
As he pulled himself up he realized he was next to an african-american supply sergeant who had just pulled into the camp as part of a supply convoy. As the sergeant dusted himself off, the sergeant looked at my father and said, “Those Motherf***ing Motherf***ers done Motherf***ed us.”
I was stunned-I had never heard my father use language like this. Then my father, thirty years after the event, looked at me with a sincere sense of awe and appreciation and said “Isn’t that wonderful? That man used the same word three times in the same sentence, and each time it was a different part of speech!”.
War story, cussing, and grammar lesson all in one package. Now THAT is the way to learn.
The world of politics has a wonderful way of creating it’s own terminology or recreating existing language to illustrate a problem or condition. Terms like “Big Mo”, “wedge issues”, “hanging chads”, “points of light”, “macaca”,and-of course- “chich-slapped” are all terms that have come to the fore as a result of their use in the political arena.
Today I discovrered a new one: Hockey Stick Moment
Chuck Todd has grabbed this term from start up businesses and applied it to national candidacies. He describes the term as meaning:
The point in a graph where a company’s profits skyrocket from being comfortable but flat (like the face of the hockey stick) to a peak (like the handle of the hockey stick).
Todd also suggests that sometimes leaders do not realize they are having the HSM, and that sometimes it is a reverse HSM, and represents a precipitous decline. Todd further states:
The one thing all of these “hockey stick” candidates have in common is that they burst on the political scene out of nowhere to become either the establishment candidate of their party (e.g., Clinton, Bush and Carter) or a big scare for the establishment (e.g., Dean and McCain).
This piquant turn of phrase is not only quite descriptive but also quite appropriate this year. The nominating season used to be several months long, and candidates could use early caucus and primary victories to build credibility and build a constantly growing momentum, as well as pick up needed funding along the way. Now, everyone wants to be first…both parties think it is wrong that the comparatively small states of Iowa and NH have a disproportinate influence on who wins the nomination, and larger states are trying to schedule their primaries earlier.
This shrinking season means that candidacies must be announced earlier, more money must be raised faster and earlier to reach possible caucus delegates and primary voters, and one must score fast and big to have a hope of securing the nod…moreover, there is less time to recover from an error (or, as Howard Dean once screamed, “YYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!”)
The point? It means that at the least all the second tier candidates must have and capitalize on a Hockey Stick Moment, or else they will get rolled by the larger dollar candidacies. They need to have that moment that sets them aside as a likely winner, or else they will get rolled as a better known and better financed candidate develops momentum and reaches terminal velocity.
Terminal Velocity, btw, will be the lingo contribution
It is always a start when you read something to your children and not only cannot answer the question, but have no idea what the answer is.
Last night I am reading WMD #1 from a book titled Oh, Yikes!: History’s Grossest Moments…(note to self…no more Border’s gift cards until he goes to college)…and came upon a date reference for Attila the Hun that finishe with the letters “CE”.
I had no idea what it meant, although I knew Attila lived in the 5th century AD.
Today, I discover that CE stands for Common Era, and is an alternative to AD. I also discovered there is a controversy extant over the use of “CE” and “BCE”.
