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choice of words
Does the first expression (using "opponents") sound less forceful than the second (using "anti-...")? I mean, could "gay marriage opponents" be seen as a euphemistic alternative to "anti-gay marriage"?
Bush Rallies Gay Marriage Opponents Bush Rallies anti-Gay Marriage contingent
I don't know that one sounds more euphemistic than the other. We're all so used to spin that we know better.
I will not comment on Bush's current crusade "over there" in the Land of the Morally Pure (as scantily reported in some of our news media "over here" in the Land of the Morally Profane) in case I say something not appropriate in this reasonably respectable forum - well, some of us try to keep it that way from an educative (hopefully) but light-hearted (hopefully) point of view. Some stupid infiltrators seem intent on disruptive guerilla action but there you go...that's the arcane world of the internet for you.....
Talking in euphemisms....that drives me bonkers. Say what you mean and mean what you say in so many words...plain and simple...no beating about the Bush (pardon the pun). Is the phrase "call a spade a spade" used outside the UK? Oh my God! ....to use a commonly used American expression. When I was at uni most of the American students I met up with (well, the girls anyway) seemed to say that with a whole lotta feeling...it seemed to make the most trivial of incidents seem like a cataclysmic, seismic disaster of major proportions. :-)
Oh my god, Becky, look at her butt -- I mean Damian, not Becky..... ;) Like, we use "call a spade a spade" all the time here in the Land of the Morally Pure! And what are you doing messing around with our Bush -- I'm so sure!
(Have ... now ... OD'd .... on Valspeak ... must ... go ... gargle ... with .... diet Tab....)
Get a grip, Uriel! Oh my God!!! :-)
Butt? What's with the butts thingy then? Here in the Land of the Morally Profane and Irredeemably but Divinely Joyfully Decadent a butt is something a goat or a ram does with his horned head against a backside, or some guy who is the target of ridicule or a large barrel that catches rainwater or the blunt end of a rifle or the mound of earth behind the target boards on a rifle range or a low barrier made of sods of earth or peat behind which sportsmen (?) shoot grouse on the Scottish hills or the last remnants of a cigarette or...and this is the best bit of all.... ......a large cask for storing wine or beer! Now you're talking! No idea at all what you meant by the word, Uriel.........and messing about with your Bush? as if.... I'd rather have a cyanide sarnie washed down by a glass of strychnine....well chilled and shaken - not stirred.
Oh, dear -- not interested in my Bush, can't figure out my butt -- Bummer!
Och....what I was wanting was to get to the bottom of this wee problem.....reckon it's sorted now....all blithe....
BRAZIL * TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO * BRAZIL * TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO Yay!!!
Do I get the impression that you're planning a bit of a holiday to our fair hemisphere, Blond Lad?
I'd really love a holiday in your fair hemisphere, Cruces Lassie. I've said so before......I've mentally planned a car trip (let's just believe I have the time and - now here's the funny bit....the dosh) right across your country from coast to coast via everything and everywhere in between and armed with recording equipment. I'd stop off at any place that takes my fancy and chat up the friendly locals and record the whole array of accents from NY to CA via TX and KS and maybe OR and IA and, if I dare it - to NM. Why not? Then and only then will I be unable to say that Americans all sound the same to me. There'd be no excuse after that wee trip would there, CL? :-)
PS: Scotland has had an earthquake today...3.1 richter. Must have been caused by a Scot actually displaying St George flags on his car! No chance.....it just wouldnae happen...but the quake did. BRAZIL*TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO*BRAZIL*TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO* |