Today’s Zits, with Jeremy and Sara and their kisses:
An extension of commando to new territory, but still having to do with a protective layer.
Archive for August, 2012
commando
August 20, 2012Rape stories
August 20, 2012It begins with a now-widely-reported story about Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri, running against incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill (D), when asked about his views on abortion:
It seems to me, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something: I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be of the rapist, and not attacking the child.
Two things here: legitimate rape vs. something else; the claim that the female body has ways to shut down conception after such a rape.
After an uproar, Akin did a follow-up:
In reviewing my off-the-cuff remarks, it’s clear that I misspoke in this interview and it does not reflect the deep empathy I hold for the thousands of women who are raped and abused every year,” he said. “I recognize that abortion, and particularly in the case of rape, is a very emotionally charged issue. But I believe deeply in the protection of all life and I do not believe that harming another innocent victim is the right course of action.
and then tweeted a muted withdrawal of the no-pregnancy claim:
To be clear, all of us understand that rape can result in pregnancy & I have great empathy for all victims. I regret misspeaking.
Much discussion on ADS-L (as well as many other places, of course).
More A-word
August 20, 2012In a comment on my A-word posting (about Geoff Nunberg’s choice of a book title — The A-Word — that would allow the demure New York Times to cite it in print, despite the verboten word assholism in the subtitle), the commenter “John” writes:
Most notable of course is their handling of the book “The No-Asshole Rule.” See the author’s blog…
I don’t want to fall into the trap of being expected to catalogue every instance of taboo avoidance in the NYT — I’ve probably posted too often on the topic already — and I was sure that the paper had contrived to avoid asshole in the past (and dimly recalled a notable instance a few years ago), so I let the general principle of NYT asshole-avoidance stand, without exploring yet another case history. But, now, somewhat reluctantly, I’ll take up the story of Bob Sutton’s 2007 book The No Asshole Rule and how it fared in the NYT.
Gaillardia
August 19, 2012Posted mostly because Tim Evanson posted a photo of wild gaillardias on Google+ a moment ago, and they’re just such gorgeous summer-blooming plants. A great and dependable garden plant, and also available in bunches from florists (as well as growing wild in fields):
Gaillardia …, the [(Indian)] blanket flowers, is a genus of drought-tolerant annual and perennial plants from the sunflower family (Asteraceae), native to North and South America. It was named after M. Gaillard de Charentonneau, an 18th-century French magistrate who was a patron of botany. The common name refers to the inflorescence’s resemblance to brightly patterned blankets made by native Americans. (link)
[Note the problem the Wikipedia writers have in dealing with subject-verb agreement when the subject is a (singular) mass noun (gaillardia) with a plural count noun (blanket flowers) in apposition to it. There are several ways out of the conflict: use a count counterpart to gaillardia, which can be pluralized (“Gaillardias, the blanket flowers, are a genus of…” — with gaillardias ‘species of gaillardia’ or gaillardias ‘gaillardia plants’); use the mass type-name counterpart to blanket flower, which will be singular (“Gaillardia, the blanket flower, is a genus of…”); or punt in one one or another (“Gaillardia is a genus of…; the plants are also known as blanket flowers”, for instance).]
The pussy patrol
August 19, 2012As the Russian punk band Pussy Riot has made the news recently, I was moved to wonder how the New York Times would handle the name, especially in light of the paper’s ostentatious avoidance of the title of the play Cock (reported on here), since pussy and cock both have non-taboo senses that could have allowed their appearance in the Gray Lady’s pages (despite the intentions of the punk band and the playwright Mike Bartlett to allude to taboo senses).
Turns out the Times had only a little trouble with Pussy Riot, so there are some very fine discriminations in verbal offense going on here.
Marjane Satrapi
August 18, 2012This morning, a fascinating interview on NPR’s Morning Edition with Marjane Satrapi, about the movie of her graphic novel Chicken With Plums [the title is about food]. I’d been meaning to post about her Persepolis books, which deal with (among other things) cultural and linguistic divides. Along the way, another bit on taboo language in the NYT.
On the banana watch
August 18, 2012From the Daily Transformations site, passed on by Barbara Need on Facebook, a carrot dancing with a banana: two phallic foods, together on the dance floor:
French dip
August 18, 2012Today’s Zippy has Griffy and Claude bickering in a diner over American exceptionalism:
Three things: American exceptionalism and jingoism (note the title, “Jingo Bingo”), the French dip, and the diner they’re sitting in. In reverse order…
Adjectives
August 17, 2012From the July 21st Economist, a letter to the editor with an initially puzzling use of the term adjective, according to which bully, despot, buffoon, and villain count as adjectives. I was reminded of the NYT‘s use of adjective to refer to the word cocksuckers, reported on here. I’m beginning to understand what’s going on here.
Photos on AZBlogX
August 17, 2012In the last month on my X Blog, I’ve been posting a series of racy photographs of men, from several collections mailed to me by Chris Ambidge. Here’s an inventory: