Words have been tumbling around in my head all weekend. I guess I’m so “into” blogging now that I’m constantly thinking of subjects and content to write about. I probably need to begin carrying around one of those voice activated recorders so I can catch those things as they flit around in my brain like bats in a cloud of fruit flies. (now isn’t that a nice visual?)
What about some of these word combinations that are being used nowadays. Like condo hotel — huh? In my day, they just called those suites. Guess they needed something that would appeal more to the hot globetrotters of today – something that sounds more elite or “spe shul” (use your best Paul Lynde voice complete with the head toss and snigger that followed)
Today’s world is rank with politically associated word combinations that had origins elsewhere.
Ear Mark — those ubiquitous items added to bills as they pass through congress. Every time I hear about one being added to a bill, I’m brought to mind of a tick on a dog. As my dogs run through the woods especially this time of year, those blood-sucking vermin attach themselves to the dog and sink their mouthparts into his/her tender skin, irritating it, drawing blood from the dog and potentially infecting the dog with some disease. Added to a legitimate bill, ear marks have all the same potential as that tick on my dog. They irritate other members of congress or the President (sometimes to the point of not voting for an otherwise needed bit of legislation), drain money from the system in an underhanded sort of way (at least it feels that way to me) and has the potential to infect this country with bad laws. But to get back to the origin of the term, in my day (and still to this day) they were things you marked your cattle with so as to keep track of them in the far-flung pastures.
Pork barrel — now there’s a term with a visual connotation to it! Once literally it referred to a barrel of salted pork that many a frontiersman relied upon for months at a time as a source of food, now the term is used to define government spending that benefits the constituents of a politician in return for their contributions and/or votes. Pork barrel politics go hand-in-hand (or hand-in-hoof as the case may be and whether the politician in question sports a set of horns) with the aforementioned term “ear mark”.
Political speak — the art of discourse and misdirection used by any politician in the course of the day. It serves him or her best when answering pointed questions by the media(or his/her constituents) or when putting forth their reasons for ear marks or pork barrel politics. This term only has origins in the two words making up the idiom.
I think I could go on and on with this subject, but your eyes are probably glazing over at this point, so I’ll give you some relief and stop. Can’t give you too much heartburn.
ê¿ê
