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Seven Missteps on the Road to Ambiguity
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Left for dead...
Posted by
George Bigelow
9/11/2008 5:34:35 PM
Jeffery,
In an election year, "left for dead" reads like a partisan smear by the right.
Best make it, "right left for dead."
It adds...
Jeffery,
In an election year, "left for dead" reads like a partisan smear by the right.
Best make it, "right left for dead."
It adds a touch of southern-flavored ambiguity, bipartisanship, and leaves no room for lipstick.
My pet peeve..."left for dead"
Posted by
Jeffrey Knight
9/9/2008 9:48:06 AM
Newscasters, especially some I've heard in the southeast U.S., use the phrase "left for dead" without truly checking its meaning. As I recall, i...
Newscasters, especially some I've heard in the southeast U.S., use the phrase "left for dead" without truly checking its meaning. As I recall, it means a person or animal who might have been run over in the road or shot or otherwise severely injured enough to appear to be mortally wounded with no chance of surviving, yet, somehow, indeed lives and, amazingly in most cases, recovers. If a person has no chance of surviving a gunshot or auto/truck crash, etc., a newswriter or reporter should use "died," "was killed," "passed away," etc., not "left for dead." I think, if all else fails, "left to die," works very well.
SAVED BY AMBIGUITY
Posted by
JAMES JOHNSON
9/9/2008 8:53:02 AM
At the end of graduate school I took comprehensive final exams. One of the essay questions required me to illustrate a theory that a famous...
At the end of graduate school I took comprehensive final exams. One of the essay questions required me to illustrate a theory that a famous person formulated.
My mind went blank and refused to cooperate.
But the test's author left me an escape hatch. The name of the famous person was misspelled on the test and became identical to the name of another famous person who didnt formulate a theory.
So my answer was, "Thus and such never formulated any theory about psycho-sexual development." He didnt.
I got credit for the answer and a brief message appended to the question...WISE-GUY!
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