“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God"
John 1:1
“Then why are these self-proclaimed Christians screwin’ around with them as much as everybody else?”
Lenny 6:3
As I continue to contend, the world is running on silly. And a lot of it has to do with picking on innocent words. I love words. Why, some of my best friends are words, and I mean no harm in using some of them here.
I mean changing french fries into “Liberty Fries”, and sticking in a little disposable American paper flag on a toothpick, and then giggling about it ‘cause “we know what they’re really called” is absurd by anyone’s standards. Actually, aren’t they really only called French fries in the States? I’d call them chips. “Fish and French fries” alliterates nicely but I would never say it.
Bertholdi, who conceptualized and designed "Liberty Enlightening the World" as he called his gift from the French would be confused; he actually (although others have claimed it) held a US patent on “Liberty”.
I would say that it was runaway chavinism but then Henri Chauvin was French. Turkey had better fall in line or there will be empty tables at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Mind you, it could be called the Liberty Bird. If they could call German measles “Liberty Measles” during World War 1 then anything is possible. It was also the time of the birth of the “Hot Dog” for obvious reasons although the dog part is still confusing. I guess they can’t all be weiners.
Ben Franklin wanted the turkey to be the national bird of the US and almost succeeded until an eagle flew by. Actually, it was named a turkey in English and dinde in France because it was thought that such an exotic looking bird must come from Turkey or India (d’Indie) and not from the colonies. Even back then, Europeans were not much impressed by the colonial upstarts.
As I’ve confessed, I love words and their origins; I don’t like to see them abused. I spent years studying linguistics and teaching words because of my love of words and their adventures and their power. When George W.Bush called the international Anti-War marches a “focus group” it’s dismissive and offensive to the marchers and their advocates no matter what your feelings are on the topic. James Carville said of Bush, “How inept do you have to be to lose a PR war with Saddam Hussein?”.
So words are a two edged sword, they can be, and are, used and misused by either side in any debate. I guess it’s their censorship that I really find offensive, and what else does taking the name French out of things do but amount to some sort of hysterical self-censorship?
Still catching some of the Bush infomercials for his war, he gets to be the spokesperson for one product in his life and it has to be this one: a war on Iraq. He’s really no salesman, Ron Popeil is more believable, especially when he does the hair paint thing. And then there is Paul Wolfowitz, I can’t help but think that there is a bit of the “Har, and the ones that dies will be the lucky ones...Har...” about him and that there has been for a long time since the time of George the first.
I took, within a communications program, a course on social issues in advertising. There is a line of thought that states that what you say in advertising can have the opposite, unintended reaction. As in “Fly the Friendly Skies”. Ya don’t hear that one anymore. So, figuring that rhetoric has to be a disguise for some other truth, I can’t help but go the other way in anything Bush says. The things that I don’t like are how he uses the word reconstruction when he really means to say destruction. Then there is democratizing when he means to say homogenizing. I won’t even mention the Christian thing.
So, Bush won’t debate Saddam, would he debate Martin Sheen then? I could see Mr. Bush walkin’ down the street talkin’ to himself after that encounter. That would get higher ratings than Joe Millionaire which got higher ratings than the Saddam does aging American newscaster show.
Words, I love ‘em. Second only to “OK”, the words Coca Cola have meaning to more people than any other words in any language. But, it is interesting that coke was originally called “French Wine of Coca” by its inventor. Local alcohol prohibition caused the French Bordeaux wine to be left out but the cocaine and the kola nut were left in. It must have been quite a buzz in less enlightened times: bulletproof drunk, paranoid, agitated, creative, nodding off and excitable all at once. Heavy users couldn’t have kept their friends for long. Actually alcohol is an Arabic word...hmmmm...as is coffee, and orange (as in orange alert).
I see that the “strike” as it was being used (or misused) in Venezuela was having a positive effect on the sales of viagra in that country. Zeus, I’m beginning to sound like George Singeon Quimby, I miss that guy.
I’ve got to toss in one of my favourite etymologies, speaking of my great fondness for words and their adventures. The word canvas for the cloth and canvass as in canvassing the neighbourhood actually comes from the word cannabis. Through a process called lenition, the “b” becomes a “v’ and away we go. Hemp was of course the source for the canvas and canvassing took place for close inspections on a sheet of white canvas in an otherwise filthy world. Hmmm...canvassing the neighbourhood may be acceptable but I’m not sure about cannabising it, I guess it would depend upon where you live.
Speaking of filthy (I suppose) the word “occupy” used to be a very naughty word, portraying the sex act. It makes sense, and it does put a new twist on the junk mail I get addressed to “Dear Occupant”. In (I believe it is mesolect Guyanese) creole, the word “bore” can mean having sex with, stabbing, or creating monotony. I once read a newspaper headline that said, “Man gets 4 Years for Boring a Woman”. So, words can be confusing, but when they are amusingly so there’s no harm done.
It’s just when they are censored for no good reason that I have a problem. I have a difficult time getting any objective news out of Venezuela, so I’m not even sure if the article I received in my email inbox is totally the truth....after all, they are only words, or is it because a week earlier, vheadline had asked for contributions to help them stay afloat, or get rich, depending on your point of view? But according to vheadline, America Online will no longer permit emails of their news to be given to AOL subscribers, in the name of Freedom I guess, or perhaps Liberty.
What’s in a name, a rose by any other...etc. but is it by accident that one of the three appointed governors over the New and Improved Iraq after the massacre will be a Ms. Levine? That should go over like a pregnant polevaulter.
BTW EC, the word “privacy” has been revived, it is now a euphemism for taking your money offshore. I’m sure that Paul Martin and his dad and kids could give you a better definition. Also, a very belated thanks for your excellent Hitchhiker’s guide to mining and sincere good wishes in your endeavors. I appreciate the benefit your experience.
Ah well, I’m worded out for now...I just wish that we could continue to toss words at each other rather than bombs...less innocent bystanders get killed that way.
“But you and I, we've been through that, and this is not our fate,
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late."
Happy Trails,
Lenny |
