Category: Language

I Fat Fingered Myself into a New Word

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In a discussion on the Stellar Parthenon BBS, there is a discussion thread about Chauvin’s conviction, I shared an article titled, “Nancy Pelosi Can Go F%$# Herself For Real.” 

I introduced the link with the following, “Speaking of paychopaths, I love this take-down of Pelosi’s thank you to Floyd.”

Clearly, my finger slipped and hit an “A” instead of a “S” in “Psychoath.”

It seems completely apropos to describe the dysfunctional and corrupt, “Anything for a campaign donation,” ruling elites to be described as a “Paychopath.”

Today in Language

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Another reminder that the word ‘ultracrepidarian’ (19th century) describes someone who loves holding forth on matters they know absolutely nothing about.

— Susie Dent 💙 (@susie_dent) March 8, 2021

As my reader(s) have no doubt noticed, I rather like to use the archaic word, “Snollygoster,” to refer to dishonest people, particularly politicians. 

I find the word wondrously evocative, and believe that it should enter general use again.

Well, I must thank Susie Dent for informing me about another wonderful word that has fallen out of use, “Ultracrepidarian,” which means someone who ……… Hell, it means almost every pundit on the planet earth with NY Times pundit Tom Friedman being the apogee (or perhaps nadir) of the form.

This Reminds Me of the Railroad Industry

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I worked at GE Transportation System in the early 1990s aas a locomotive systems engineer.

After years of contraction and decay, they were recapitalizing.

Standard line was that they had gotten to the point where they had to recapitalize, but it was something more basic: The Wall Street types who believed that railroads were dying had finally looted all they could, and they had been replaced by management that actually believed in railroads.

Freight rail in the Us has been on a generally upward path since.

Well, we are seeing the same thing in the newspaper business these days, with the jargon of the official launch of Tronc, formerly Tribune Publishing being a particularly egregious example.

As Allison Hantschel observes, “Media Companies Hate News, the Internet, Employees and their Own Customers:

Or, as the Hip Happening Kids Today call it, #Tronc:

CasSelle: We produce tons of great content every single day. We’re really focused on how we we deliver it to people in a way they want to consume it more and more. 


Vasquez: One of the key ways we’re going to harness the power of our journalism is to have an optimization group. This Tronc team, will work with all of the local markets, to harness the power of our local journalism, feed it into a funnel, and then optimize it so we reach the biggest global audience possible.
Yes, Tronc shall take the corn feed of journalism and funnel it into the optimization-group goose, to make delicious foie gras that will be consumed by the digital natives.

It arguably gets worse from there. And what’s genuinely sad is that people who talk like this typically don’t understand how the internet actually works—that’s why they lean on buzzwords—or have any notion of how to communicate with journalists, who tend to bristle at this stuff.

These are internal employee videos designed to PUMP YOU UP about your newfound place not at Tribune Publishing, a recognizable name that at least still sounded impressive, but at Tronc, which sounds like you stepped on a duck.

I understand that conventional journalism in general, and the newspaper business in particular, faces challenges, but the bigger problem is that upper management does not believe in the product: Journalism.  (Of course, there is also the fact that Sam Zell ran the company into the ground).

Our MBA/Wall Street/Private Equity management “Culture” does nothing but loot.

What a Bunch of Hypocritical Pearl Clutching

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Over at the former Kaplan Test Prep company, now a division of Amazon, Dana Milbank is having the vapors over Donald Trump’s sometimes salty language.

This from the guy who joked about Hillary Clinton drinking Mad Bitch Beer.

Seriously? If there is anyone in the Washington commentariat who is less well qualified to talk about misogyny and profanity, I haven’t read them yet:

Here’s a serious question for Republican officeholders: WTF?

Now that Trump has a lock on the presidential nomination, many top Republicans — too many — are moving to embrace this vulgar man for the sake of party unity. It is a real [expletive] show.

The man who would be the Grand Old Party’s standard-bearer has said the following things (among many others) in front of thousands of men, women and children (and millions more via the media):

On U.S. companies relocating overseas: “You can tell them to go f— themselves.”

On China’s artificial islands in the South China Sea: “They’re ripping the sh– out of the sea.”

On the Islamic State? “I would bomb the sh– out of ISIS.”

Earlier, on dealing with China: “Listen, you motherf—ers, we’re going to tax you 25 percent.”

And on climate change: “This very expensive global warming bullsh– has got to stop.”

Republicans: This vulgarian speaks for you?

Seriously Dana, go Cheney yourself.

And Jeff (Bezos) make Dana do some useful work for his paycheck.

I am Seriously Considering Changing My Name

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A man has changed his last name to “Null” and as a result, has scored lots of free stuff:

A man who changed his surname to ‘Null’ claims he’s bagged numerous freebies because the word isn’t compatible with computer databases.

Raven Felix Null, 24, says he changed his name when he became an adult and claims it’s resulted in seven free nights at seven different hotels and free-of-charge car rental.

It’s all because the word ‘Null’ doesn’t register with the computer’s programming, so computer systems assume he’s not a person.

The glitch means that when receptionists enter “Null” in the surname box the system automatically recognises the word as “an absence of data”.

Which then results in the computer refusing to validate the request and Raven isn’t billed for any of the items he’s purchased.

The IT manager shared his knowledge on Reddit, where he goes by the username koalahumper, saying: “I have gotten a lot of free stuff because [a] code gives an error to the effect of “last name can’t be left blank” and the person helping me will “just put my info in later” but they never do (or can’t).”

If someone decides to challenge him about the issue, Raven threatens to sue the company for discrimination and the problem is often left until later in the day.

………

And Raven insists he didn’t change his surname to “Null” to try and gain freebies, instead he chose it so he could disassociate himself from everything.

He explained: “it means nothing, meaning I am not connected to my “family” in any way any”.

Me, I would change my name to, “Matthew’); DROP TABLE NSA;”.

Huh. It Appears that He Can Talk

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Clarence Thomas just just asked his first questions in a Supreme Court oral argument in 10 years. I am thinking that the absence of Scalia has something to do with this.

My guess is that he is confused, because Scalia is no longer there to tell him what to think:

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, for the first time in a decade, asked questions from the bench during oral arguments, according to reporters present at Monday’s Supreme Court hearings. His questions pertained to the rights of domestic abuse offenders to have a gun, in a case considering a federal law banning convicted abusers from owning guns.

The 10-year anniversary of the last time the conservative justice asked a question came just this month. In the period, however, Thomas did make a comment from the bench, but it was not a question. He has said that he would prefer to end oral arguments at the Supreme Court.

It appears that he was asking questions that had nothing to do with the actual issues raised by the litigants, so I am wondering if this exercise in “got from a Cracker Jack box judging” is an homage to the memory of Scalia, who frequently raised issues not brought forward by the litigants, and on many occasions assuming facts not in evidence. (Scalia’s Hobby Lobby opinion is a particularly egregious example)

Lose

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At the last kiddie table debate, Rick “A Frothy Mixture” Santorum suggested that debate watchers Google him:

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum encouraged viewers to Google him in Thursday’s undercard Republican presidential debate, an unfortunate choice of words that reminded many of his search engine woes fueled by sex columnist Dan Savage.

“Go and Google Rick Santorum and Hillary Clinton you’ll see a five-minute debate. I’ll let you decide who won the debate,” he said during his closing statement. “I’ll tell you who won, I know I’m out of time, I’m going to take some of Rand Paul’s time here for a second.”

The prompt recalled sex columnist Dan Savage’s retribution campaign against Santorum for his anti-gay remarks, when Savage asked readers to come up with an alternate definition for “santorum.” A highly NSFW entry rose to the top and has for years plagued top search engine results for Santorum’s name across sites.

If you Google “Santorum”, you will find multiple references to, “The frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the by-product of anal sex,” a neologism coined by Dan Savage in the late 2003.

If you are Rick Santorum, you should NEVER ask people to Google you.

Be Afraid. Be Very, Very Afraid

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Over at the Washington Post, Paul Schwartzman and Jenna Johnson look at the Trump Campaign, and they discover that there is actually a very sophisticated and measured messaging process, not the shoot from the lip perception of “The Donald”:

He referred to Mexicans as “rapists,” questioned Sen. John McCain’s status as a war hero, ridiculed the physical appearance of his opponents, falsely claimed that “thousands” in New Jersey cheered as the World Trade Center fell and, this week, called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States.

Despite predictions that such searing, divisive rhetoric and the resulting outcry would cripple his campaign, Donald Trump’s insults and controversial proposals have propelled him to the forefront of the 2016 presidential race — and kept him there.

And while it may seem like a lurching, chaotic campaign, Trump is, for the most part, a disciplined and methodical candidate, according to a Washington Post review of the businessman’s speeches, interviews and thousands of tweets and retweets over the past six months.

Trump delivers scores of promises, diatribes and insults at breakneck speed. He attacks a regular cast of villains including undocumented immigrants, Muslims, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, his GOP rivals and the media. He keeps the narrative arc of each controversy alive with an endless stream of statements, an unwillingness to back down even when he has misstated the facts — and a string of attacks against those who criticize him.

All the while, his supporters see a truth-talking problem solver unlike the traditional politicians who have let them down. Spending remarkably little, he dominates yet another news cycle, and his Republican rivals languish in his shadow.

………

The Post’s analysis found several qualities to Trump’s approach. First is a pattern of experimentation that suggests that he is testing his insults and attacks as he goes along. Like a team of corporate marketers, Trump understands the value of message-testing — but he appears to do it spontaneously, behind the lectern and on live television.

It appears that there is a method to this madness.

To me this is a hell of a lot scarier than him being some loud mouth who accidentally captured the Zeitgeist of the Republican Party, because it means that the next time, it could be worse.

Fox News Has Its Limits ……… Who Knew?

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It turns out that if you call the President a “Pussy” on the air, or if you saying that Obama, “Doesn’t give a sh%$,” is a bridge too far for the performance art troupe known as Fox News:

Fox News has suspended two contributors, Ralph Peters and Stacey Dash, who described President Obama as a “p**sy” who doesn’t “give a s**t” on air today, reports CNN.

Peters’ and Dash’s comments “were completely inappropriate and unacceptable for our air,” Fox News senior executive vice president Bill Shine said in a statement announcing the suspensions this afternoon.

Peters, who Fox describes as its “strategic analyst,” called the president a “total pu—” who “doesn’t want to hurt our enemies” during an apperance on Fox Business Channel on Monday. “This guy, [he] is such a total p**sy, it’s stunning,” Peters told host Stuart Varney, reacting to the president’s recent address on terrorism.

On her regular turn on the “Outnumbered” couch on Fox News Monday afternoon, former Clueless star Stacey Dash just couldn’t contain her anger at President Obama’s Sunday evening Oval Office address on terror, saying that “I felt like he could give a shit — excuse me, like he could care less.”

“Fox Business Network and Fox News Channel do not condone the use of such language, and have suspended both Peters and Dash for two weeks,” Shine said. Both Peters and Dash have been suspended for two weeks.

It’s only 2 weeks, but I wouldn’t have expected 2 minutes from Emperor Ailes.

The New York Times Uses the “L” Word

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By the “L” word, I mean that the Times is calling Donald Trump a liar, and they are actually using that word:

America has just lived through another presidential campaign week dominated by Donald Trump’s racist lies. Here’s a partial list of false statements: The United States is about to take in 250,000 Syrian refugees; African-Americans are responsible for most white homicides; and during the 9/11 attacks, “thousands and thousands” of people in an unnamed “Arab” community in New Jersey “were cheering as that building was coming down.”

In the Republican field, Mr. Trump has distinguished himself as fastest to dive to the bottom. If it’s a lie too vile to utter aloud, count on Mr. Trump to say it, often. It wins him airtime, and retweets through the roof.

It’s nice that they are calling a lie a lie, but there are a lot of other cases where the word, “lie”is completely justified.

It be a real public service if they were to call other liars out in no uncertain terms.

How Utterly Appropriate

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I just learned today that in Norway, the word “Texas: is slang for insanity, mayhem, and chaos:

Y’all already all know that Texas is known for its slang. The state is home to a slew of Southern colloquialisms as well as totally unique sayings you won’t hear anywhere else.

 But did you know that the word “Texas” is in itself a slang word?

 According to Texas Monthly, Norwegians have long used the word “Texas” in lieu of the word “crazy.”

 Think that last statement is hogwash?

 Just look at this headline from a Norwegian sports website, VG Sporten:

………

To explain the language phenomenon, Texas Monthly cited a Tumblr which claimed that Norwegian slang word has a lot to do with its association to the wild west and Western shoot-em-up movies. Another web travelogue we found on the internet explained it this way:  “In Norwegian, ‘texas’ means mayhem and chaos, as in cowboys punching each other and breaking chairs over each other’s heads.”

In a Reddit string entitled “Norwegians on Texas,” one Reddit user wrote that when he uses the expression “Det var helt Texas,” he pictures a  “cowboy crashing a party and shooting two revolvers into the air.”

It’s certainly not the most current of cultural references and can certainly lead to negative connotations, but it might be worth noting that the idiom is a largely old one. Some speculate that the idiom has been in use since at least the 1970s.

Considering my failed attempt to raise the term Snollygoster in the public consciousness, maybe it is time for me to start using “Totally Texas” for batsh%$ insane.

I Worked Up Some Presidential Nicknames

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Just the Democrats, because there are too many ‘Phants to name, and new Republican candidates keep popping up like some twisted game of Whack-a-Mole.

It’s one of those things that happens when we are all on a drive of any length.

Here goes:

  • Miss Congeniality (Hillary Clinton: Likable enough, but she is not going to win.)
  • Who? (Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island)
  • The Republican running as a Democrat (James Webb, who opposes the Iran nuclear deal, supports the Confederate flag, etc.)
  • Too dull for a nickname (Martin O’Malley)
  • The Berninator (Bernie Sanders)

If you have any suggestions, feel free to contribute them in the comments.

Memorial Day Thought: Thanking Soldiers for Their Service Is Quite Literally the Least You Can Do………

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I do not say this to diminish or demean the actions taken by members of the military, but rather because the boiler plate, “Thank you for your service,” is patronizing and demeaning.

What you are really saying, and the soldiers understand this, is “I am so glad that it’s you, and not me, or my children, who are doing this.”

Rather unsurprisingly, the folks who have served have a similar view of that cliche:

………

 As the size of the military shrinks, the connections between military personnel and the broad civilian population appear to be growing more distant, the Pew Research Center concluded after a broad 2012 study of both service members and civilians.

 Most of the country has experienced little, if any, personal impact from the longest era of war in U.S. history. But those in uniform have seen their lives upended by repeated deployments to war zones, felt the pain of seeing family members and comrades killed and maimed, and endured psychological trauma that many will carry forever, often invisible to their civilian neighbors.

 ………

 “I am well-aware that many Americans, especially our elite classes, consider the military a bit like a guard dog,” said Lt. Col. Remi M. Hajjar, a professor of behavioral sciences and leadership at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

 “They are very thankful for our protection, but they probably wouldn’t want to have it as a neighbor,” he said. “And they certainly are not going to influence or inspire their own kids to join that pack of Rottweilers to protect America.”

 ………

 George Baroff, enjoying an outdoor lunch at an organic food co-op in Carrboro one recent afternoon, said he understood the military quite well: He served three years as a draftee during World War II before eventually becoming a psychology professor in nearby Chapel Hill.

 Baroff, 90, finds himself startled when people learn of his war record and say, as Americans often do to soldiers these days, “Thank you for your service.”

 “You never, ever heard that in World War II. And the reason is, everybody served,” he said.

 In Baroff’s view, today’s all-volunteer military has been robbed of the sense of shared sacrifice and national purpose that his generation enjoyed six decades ago. Today’s soldiers carry a heavier burden, he said, because the public has been disconnected from the universal responsibility and personal commitment required to fight and win wars.

 “For us, the war was over in a few years. The enemy surrendered and were no longer a threat,” he said. “For soldiers today, the war is never over; the enemy is never defeated.” The result, he added, is “a state of perpetual anxiety that the rest of the country doesn’t experience.”

 ………

 What most don’t realize is how frequently such gestures ring hollow.

 “So many people give you lip service and offer fake sympathy. Their sons and daughters aren’t in the military, so it’s not their war. It’s something that happens to other people,” said Phillip Ruiz, 46, a former Army staff sergeant in Tennessee who was wounded twice during three tours in Afghanistan and Iraq.

 Douglas Pearce, a former Army lieutenant who fought in Afghanistan and is now a marriage and family counselor in Nashville, said civilians seem to think they “can assuage their guilt with five seconds in the airport.”

 “What they’re saying is, ‘I’m glad you served so that I didn’t have to, and my kids won’t have to.‘”

(Emphasis mine)

Seriously, find something a bit more meaningful to say.

H/T Ed Kilgore at Washington Monthly.