Language Follies 16

Quotes of the Day

Every jest is an earnest in the womb of Time.

(George Bernard Shaw, John Bull’s Other Island)

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It’s very easy to have a simple theory, if it is completely false.

(Daniel Kahneman)

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How to Get Clean (Warily)

There’s “Naval Diplomacy”

Or  

“Krakengard”

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Euphemism Watch

From The New Yorker (1965)

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We Don’t Mean It When We Say It

Restaurant patrons who order chicken wings marketed as "boneless" can't expect them to actually be boneless, according to a Thursday ruling from the Ohio Supreme Court. . . .

[I]n Thursday's 4-3 ruling, the Ohio Supreme Court said "boneless" wings refers to a cooking style, and that Berkheimer should have been on guard against bones since it's common knowledge that chickens have bones. The high court sided with lower courts that had dismissed Berkheimer's suit.

"A diner reading 'boneless wings' on a menu would no more believe that the restaurant was warranting the absence of bones in the items than believe that the items were made from chicken wings, just as a person eating 'chicken fingers' would know that he had not been served fingers," wrote Justice Joseph T. Deters for the majority.*

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Family Circle magazine contributed this wake-up call advertisement to The New Yorker issue of October 30, 1965:

As of today, almost 60 years later, I have read only about 15 of those books. I guess they shouldn’t have let me in to college.

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* https://www.yahoo.com/news/chicken-wings-sold-boneless-bones-221548080.html