Dennis Miller fractures his French, not so suave

As an Iraq war policy loyalist, comedian turned political commentator Dennis Miller may be fairly labeled a French basher, a practice much ballyhooed by the American television media in the early days of the war. Remember, one in three French persons did not favor the United States' invasion of Iraq. That's 33%. In a pseudo act of patriotism, the Hill cafeteria in Congress renamed its French fries and French toast to "Freedom Fries" and "Freedom Toast." The practice soon caught on as "freedom loving" Americans soon began eating ravenously the newly named pomme frites .

Yeah, well that's the United States Congress. On the street at least one in two Americans would admit they still consume French Fries and French Toast as 51 per cent of respondents to a TNS poll released by the Washington Post and ABC News think the United States is not making significant progress toward restoring civil order in Iraq.

Can we say therefore that a representative 51% of Americans don't feel like much "freedom" has been sown in Iraq?

A fact often overlooked is the one clouded by the obscurantism* of American television media** that a greater number of United States citizens than French citizens are not approving of the war. According to the same TNS poll, 63 per cent of respondents think the war with Iraq was not worth fighting." That's over 50%. (Angus Reid World Opinion Monitor).

Back to Miller who was asked by Fox News' Bill O'Reilly about a recent meeting Miller had experienced with a celebrity named "Mr. T."

"Good guy," responded Miller, or words that effect. "He gave me a five-pack of Milky Way (candy bars)...I remember when six-packs were du rejour." "Rejour" (spelled the way Miller pronounced it) is the mispronounciation of de rigueur, meaning "customary or proper (behavior)." Merriam Webster OnLine Dictionary. Thus, Miller was saying that it used to be customary to give people six instead of five of something when rendering (a gift) in bulk.

Miller couldn't hate the French so much as to say "du rejour" for de rigueur. Fluent individuals who can't pronounce French succeed well enough in pronouncing the phrase: də-(ˌ)rē-ˈgər. (Go to link to hear pronunciation). If Miller is going to use a French phrase often used in English, at least he could pronounce the word the way fluent Americans do, whether or not they agree with one-third of French public opinion. Then again, he may hate the French so much as to sacrifice the suave image he projects.

*n. resistance to progress (political and/or social) and the spread of knowledge; deliberate creation of obscurity. (Oxford Concise English Dictionary).

**Many newspapers have remained faithful to their journalistic calling and the promise of the 1st Amendment, and have reported this fact.

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Remedy for dogs in the garden

My wife gardens for pleasure and for the pleasure of others. She loves dogs and other animals. However, when the Newfoundland "puppy" next door wanders into the garden, patience suffers.

Sniffing around innocently, the 80 pounder (his father is 180 lbs.) knows little of the osteospermum and the salvia officinalis he "bewilders" with his bear like paws.

Since we live in Southern California, I recommended that my wife try a cactus to steer the pooch elsewhere.

"A cactus?" She inquired.

"Yes, a cactus. Believe me, that "little" Newf* will get the point.**


*Shortened version for Newfoundland (dog) which we love.
**Actually, our "little" friend will probably not get the point. His fur is thick enough to cushion any points made by cactuses.

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Turning phrases to make a point

Clever and not so clever writers use old rhetorical devices as antimetabole and chiasmus to get our attention. What separates good from bad turns of phrases (or clauses) we leave up to you.

antimetabole is the repetition of words in successive clauses, but in reverse grammatical order (ex: "I know what I like, and like what I know." It is similar to chiasmus although chiasmus does not repete the same words or phrases.

chiasmus is the figure of speech in which two or more clauses are related to each other through a reversal of structures in order to make a larger point; that is, the clauses display inverted parallelism. (Wikipedia). Example: I went to school, to work went they.

"We are in the business of educating, not the education business." -- JET Tutoring Company, Santa Monica, California)
(The larger point: Your child's eduction will not suffer at the expense of our bottom line profit)

It is easy to see you in your kids, but sadly not the kid in you. -- Jack Sands
(The larger point: Someone who has perhaps lost the joy in life?)

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