Language Follies 11 (The Ides of March Edition)

The Ides of March

If you’re Julius Caesar, you should take the soothsayer’s advice and beware this day. If you’re anybody else, there’s nothing to fear. “Ides,” which sounds so ominous, did not mean anything like”hex” or “evil eye.” In Roman times it merely was the designation for the middle of the month; hence, for March, the 15th.

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Today’s Orwell Award for Euphemism

“Pain compliance”

“In a nutshell, pain compliance involves either manipulating a person's joints or activating certain pressure points to create sufficient pain to achieve compliance.”*

Don’t you love police talk?

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The Wisdom of the Walls

Here’s some of the latest intelligence from the boundaries of sporting venues:

“100% Guaranteed Gasolines” 

(As distinct, one wonders, from what?)

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“Defending Networks. Hunting Forwards”

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“Tawandang German Brewery” 

(Which is located at 462/61 Rama III Rd, Chong Nonsi, Yan Nawa, Bangkok 10120, Thailand)

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And, finally Dr. Cinik, the good old Turkish man-of-all-work, who offers “Dental Treatments,” “Hair Transplants,” “Plastic Surgery.”

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“Psyop”

(Or, “I am talking out of my rear end”)

“Lately,” The Washington Post, tells us,

it’s become popular in conservative media circles to brand certain things as a psychological operation, or “psyop.”

Climate change, for example. Or covid. Or the media coverage of Donald Trump. Or even the prosecution of Hunter Biden.

The Post identifies Fox News host Jesse Watters as 

perhaps the most influential superspreader of the term. In January, Watters used a just-asking-questions formula to suggest that Taylor Swift is a psyop asset of the Defense Department. 

Watters acknowledged that his show “obviously has no evidence” for the claim . . .**

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“If I Wasn’t So Wrong, I’d Be Right”

Winthrop Sargeant was classical music reviewer of The New Yorker for many years. This item from April 30,1955 beats anything else he ever wrote:

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And lest you think that a non-music music review would top the crazy chart in 1955, here’s a conspiracy theory that belongs to the world of Jesse Watters 

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* https://www.officer.com/home/article/10250067/pain-compliance-vs-body-mechanics

** https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2024/02/22/psyop-conspiracy-theory-conservative-media/