Cato's Grammar Grumble

[Ken B]

The phrase male gigolo really is a redundancy, right?

Oh you are so far from woke my friend!

[Karl Henning]

I hang my head in shame . . . .

[Cato]

The phrase male gigolo really is a redundancy, right?

Well, if the gigolo is female, then she is not a gigolo: another word is used!   0:)

And if the gigolo is neuter,     then, well, you know!   

[Karl Henning]

Well, if the gigolo is female, then she is not a gigolo: another word is used!   0:)

Gigola?

[Cato]

Gigola?

Funiculi, Funicula !!!

Still laughing about this:

The ruling on the replay was that the ball did not "Survive the Ground," which sounds like the title of a Liam Neeson movie.

BAD GUY: No! No don't throw me off this rooftop, Liam Neeson.

LIAM NEESON: If you don't tell me where she is, you'll never...survive the ground.   

Recently, the word "sponge" offered an opportunity to exploit its multiple meanings.

A new colleague, a 40-or-50 something lady, came into my classroom and asked:

"Do you know where I can find a sponge?"

I: "Well, yes, but all the ones I know live over in Dayton!"   

She had no idea what I was talking about, and looked at me as if I were more than just eccentric!    0:)  So, I added quickly: "The sponges we have are in the laboratory."

[Karl Henning]

Who knew this figurative reading would drop out of consciousness!

[Cato]

Concerning the phrases "political theater," "trigger words," and "safe space" as found on our modern college campuses, linguist John McWhorter has these comments:

  (Interviewer)...when you say political theater, you're not so much concerned with the theatrical aspect per se as you are with the idea that the goal of the political theater is to make certain ideas anathema. Is that correct?

John: Definitely. When I say theater, yes, there's theater in any kind of protest. The very fact that you're making a loud noise in a public forum is theater. The very fact that you're trying to attract people's attention who otherwise would not be inclined to give it, that's theater. That's part of politics. But there's a particular theatrical aspect to all of this in that I find it simply incoherent—it's not believable—that a psychologically healthy person and one intelligent and ambitious enough to have gotten into a selective school, in particular, is somebody who is constitutionally unable to bear hearing somebody express views that they don't agree with, or that they even find nauseous. It's one thing to find views repugnant. It's another thing to claim that—to hear them constitute a kind of injury that no reasonable person should be expected to stand up to. That's theatrical because it's not true. Nobody is hurt in that immediate, lasting and intolerable way by some words that a person stands up and addresses, in the abstract, to an audience at a microphone....

To claim that is a kind of theater in itself. You are pretending—and that really is the only appropriate word—you're pretending that something that you find unpleasant to behold is injurious. And I think that the theatricality of that kind in the argument is a response in part to the fact that to make your case otherwise—that somebody just shouldn't be heard—is difficult. You have to pretend that it's hurting you like a punch in the stomach, because otherwise it becomes a little inconveniently transparent that, really, you're just insisting that you have your own way because you've decided that a certain way of thinking is what's on the side of the angels.... 

See: https://heterodoxacademy.org/2017/12/14/an-interview-with-john-mcwhorter/

I also came across the term "cupcaking" thanks to certain members of the student body at Ohio State University.  No, it has nothing to do with cupcakes from an oven. 

Apparently it is a variation on "sweet-talking."  The difference is that one "cupcakes" by cupping your hand over your phone, so that others cannot hear you sweet-talking to your girlfriend (or boyfriend, although I have the impression this is an expression used primarily by young men).

[zamyrabyrd]

I just posted this on the "Royal Wedding" thread after someone was castigated for using the term "Oriental":

I would like to know WHO decides that neutral terms like "Oriental" can be offensive. Somehow I think the late Edward Said made that into a pejorative term. UGH!

There must be a secret Academie deciding what words are acceptable to use and which ones should be eradicated.
These Gremlins coerce the media, publications and of course, educational institutions.
I find their made up terms like"micro-aggression" and weird pronouns amusing, though.

Come out, come out, wherever you are! 

[Cato]

I just posted this on the "Royal Wedding" thread after someone was castigated for using the term "Oriental":

I would like to know WHO decides that neutral terms like "Oriental" can be offensive. Somehow I think the late Edward Said made that into a pejorative term. UGH!

There must be a secret Academie deciding what words are acceptable to use and which ones should be eradicated.
These Gremlins coerce the media, publications and of course, educational institutions.
I find their made up terms like"micro-aggression" and weird pronouns amusing, though.

Come out, come out, wherever you are! 

These days it seems that people go out of their way to discover an insult in the most benign of expressions and intentions.

[Ken B]

These days it seems that people go out of their way to discover an insult in the most benign of expressions and intentions.

Your claim of being benign is itself a micro aggression because it invalidates the lived experience of feeling your racist hatred.

[kishnevi]

http://twowheeledmadwoman.blogspot.com/2017/12/linguitic-patrol-rides-again.html

[Cato]

http://twowheeledmadwoman.blogspot.com/2017/12/linguitic-patrol-rides-again.html

Many thanks for the link!

Your claim of being benign is itself a micro aggression because it invalidates the lived experience of feeling your racist hatred.

"There you go again!"     Yes, I suppose these days a German last name ipso facto indicates racism, at the very least "unconscious racism" !  Even being a full-bodied, equal-opportunity, unreconstructed misanthrope offers no exoneration! 

[Karl Henning]

http://twowheeledmadwoman.blogspot.com/2017/12/linguitic-patrol-rides-again.html

At a casual glance, linguistic was misspelled.

[kishnevi]

At a casual glance, linguistic was misspelled.

Only in the URL.  And she is by her own admission, subject to making typos rather often. I do, too, so I willingly give her a pass on that.

[Karl Henning]

Only in the URL.  And she is by her own admission, subject to making typos rather often. I do, too, so I willingly give her a pass on that.

Aye. 'Twas but what caught my eye.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[kishnevi]

Even the National Review stumbles from time to time

http://amp.nationalreview.com/article/454973/jane-austen-madame-de-stael-women-society-sexual-harassment-discrimination


Speaking of Miss Jane Austen

and no other English novelist since Dickens has been so widely loved.

[Cato]

Even the National Review stumbles from time to time

http://amp.nationalreview.com/article/454973/jane-austen-madame-de-stael-women-society-sexual-harassment-discrimination

Love your picture of my fellow Ohioan William Tecumseh Sherman!  Have you ever visited his restored house in Lancaster?

Yesterday we had breakfast - thanks to a gift-card Christmas present from a student - at a fancy-schmancy, trendy-schmendy, "breakfast-and-lunch-only" diner.

On the menu were three words which should never be used in succession:

"Meditative Kale Smoothie - $4.95"

Perhaps one meditates upon the kale, or the exorbitant price, or the seeming impossibility of "kale" ever being "smooth."  No mantras or gurus were offered, but perhaps the kale has no need of such mundane items.

[Ken B]

Love your picture of my fellow Ohioan William Tecumseh Sherman!  Have you ever visited his restored house in Lancaster?

Yesterday we had breakfast - thanks to a gift-card Christmas present from a student - at a fancy-schmancy, trendy-schmendy, "breakfast-and-lunch-only" diner.

On the menu were three words which should never be used in succession:

"Meditative Kale Smoothie - $4.95"

Perhaps one meditates upon the kale, or the exorbitant price, or the seeming impossibility of "kale" ever being "smooth."  No mantras or gurus were offered, but perhaps the kale has no need of such mundane items.

Found on the web

After the mani-pedi, pair this book with a meditative kale smoothie, a gab-fest Diet Coke, or a leisurely Pinot Grigio...

"It's Ohio, Jake."

[kishnevi]

Love your picture of my fellow Ohioan William Tecumseh Sherman!  Have you ever visited his restored house in Lancaster?

Yesterday we had breakfast - thanks to a gift-card Christmas present from a student - at a fancy-schmancy, trendy-schmendy, "breakfast-and-lunch-only" diner.

On the menu were three words which should never be used in succession:

"Meditative Kale Smoothie - $4.95"

Perhaps one meditates upon the kale, or the exorbitant price, or the seeming impossibility of "kale" ever being "smooth."  No mantras or gurus were offered, but perhaps the kale has no need of such mundane items.

Alas! Beyond one weekend spent entirely in the confines of Hebrew Union College, when I was a college lad, I have never been to Ohio. In fact, my most vivid memory of that trip is of the Kentucky bluegrass which lined the road from the airport (Cincinnati's airport is in Kentucky, just across the river) to the city.

That was the time when I scandalized the HUC (the seminary of Reform Judaism) by wearing a skullcap and prayer shawl to Shabbat morning services....

[Cato]

Alas! Beyond one weekend spent entirely in the confines of Hebrew Union College, when I was a college lad, I have never been to Ohio. In fact, my most vivid memory of that trip is of the Kentucky bluegrass which lined the road from the airport (Cincinnati's airport is in Kentucky, just across the river) to the city.

That was the time when I scandalized the HUC (the seminary of Reform Judaism) by wearing a skullcap and prayer shawl to Shabbat morning services....

The view of downtown Cincinnati from the Kentucky side on I-75 is magnificent, but you would find the traffic and the urban sprawl immense since your visit. 

Ken B.'s quotation is from a review of a children's activity book called the Me Museum 

Here is the Amazon summary:

   It has come to our attention that most museums will not let you draw on the walls. And most museums will not let you make your own statues. And most museums are not actually all about you. Is this true?! Then the Me Museum is pretty much exactly unlike any other museum you've ever seen—here you can do all of that, and then paint portraits of your favorite people, decide what's for lunch, create your own secret hideout, and then invite your family and friends to tour the whole building for themselves.

An excellent activity book for car trips, rainy days, or anytime that will become a keepsake for years to come

(My emphasis above)

And here is the review with the curious phrase "meditative kale smoothie."  I thought it would be worth quoting the whole thing because it is just sooo precious and appallingly symbolic of certain people today:

For adults too! I'm pretty sure this gorgeous book is meant for kids—and it would be really wonderful for shy kids especially, with its message of "letting people in" sometimes.The artwork makes it clear that everyone is special just because they are themselves; what kid doesn't need to hear that message? But being sans kids, I'm thinking more about how fun this would be for a girls weekend—one of those review-and-renew retreats. The debossed cover engaged me right away...you pick it up and go "wow!" just because it feels like a party. The art works for adults, too. And answering the questions lets you feel a little silly and a lot good about yourself. It's nice to step away from negativity and play in a happy space...even if you are an adult. After the mani-pedi, pair this book with a meditative kale smoothie, a gab-fest Diet Coke, or a leisurely Pinot Grigio...

I prefer a leisurely Topo Gigio! 

I will confess that I might be judging all of this unfairly,  perhaps becoming too sensitive to certain things because I am reading a book on The Seven Deadly Sins as seen in society in the 1970's. 

Or maybe not!  0:)