DLL Editor's letter to friends and colleagues -- Thursday 9/14/17

Hi ___,

Thanks for this link. I will add it to the "Chuckles, Shame, and/or Fake News" section of the next edition of my blog newsletter ... :-)

http://ow.ly/Ta6w30f9ecp

I have studied a few foreign languages over the course of my four score minus 4, and always found it useful to learn synonyms for "good" and "bad" in those languages as soon as possible. Now I am losing my grip on my native tongue because Trump & company have so diluted the meaning of English appositives as to render them useless. Example: if I were to say that Equifax was "bad", then what word applies to Trump and his cronies? "Super-bad"?" Galactic bad?", "Googleplex bad"? Conversely, if Trump and company are "horrible", then the misdeeds of Equifax are insignificant deviations from "normal". Indeed, one of the small joys that I derive from reading anti-Trump op-eds nowadays is watching professional writers wrestle with this dilemma. They strive mightily to identify the precise metaphor that will convey the profound depth of their revulsion ... and they usually fail. It's like watching robots topple over when climbing a winding stairway. Always triggers great giggles ... :-)

Best,

Roy