Monday, August 25, 2008

Lost in Translation (or, You Do Not Have to be Hit to be Abused, Sweetie?)


Hello, boys and girls. Let's have some fun with language!

I'm choosing adjectives and nouns from two sources today: Dahlia' Lithwick's piece in Slate, "The Madwoman in the Blogosphere" (nb. that would be me, btw) and Michele Goldberg's "Three A.M. for Feminism," all about "Clinton dead-enders and the crisis in the women's movement."

Keep in mind that this language is coming from two supposedly liberal progressive Democratic women.

Ready to mix and match?

PICK ONE FROM COLUMN A AND ONE FROM COLUMN B

A.------------------------------------------------------------- B.

disgruntled ------------------------------------------------bitch
bitter -----------------------------------------------------madwoman
irrational ----------------------------------------------pyromaniac
hurt ---------------------------------------------------martyr
angry ---------------------------------------------------victim
rejected -------------------------------------------------harridan
unstable -------------------------------------------------hysteric
petulant ----------------------------------------------she-devil
lunatic ---------------------------------------------------dead-ender
wicked
emotional
self-referential (not THAT!)
mad
old
irrationally destructive
toxic
middle-aged


(Forgive my inability to get the columns lined up right.)

O-kay.


How many combinations were you able to make, boyz and girlz?

"Toxic bitch"? "Middle-aged she-devil"? "Self-referential pyromaniac"?

This is a contest, faithful readers!

The grand prize is -- a bushel basketful of that singularly bitter high-priced vegetable, arugula!

And the question is: WHAT IS THE POINT OF MY POSTING THESE LISTS?

.

[An important piece from Avedon Carol at Side-show, "this is not an instruction in how to vote" (hat tip to Corrente)]
{Campaign updates at Corrente.}

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Irrationally unstable destructively toxic pyromaniac martyr dead-ender. (I'd keep going but I just self immolated with that one)

No Blood for Hubris said...

w00t!

Widget Whiteberry said...

Along the same lines, I bring to your attention: http://thestrangedeathofliberalamerica.com/barack-obama-and-the-people-behind-the-new-swift-boating.html

No Blood for Hubris said...

I couldn't follow the link, widge. Could you post again? ; )

No Blood for Hubris said...

Never mind. I googled it, and found it. Interesting.

It's a jungle out there, all right.

Anonymous said...

Let's try Widget's link again...