Two weeks ago I wrote about avoiding clichés HERE, and it made me think about phrases we associate with U.S. presidents.
Without googling these words, do you know the U.S. presidents with whom these phrases are linked, for better or for worse?
a day that will live in infamy
military industrial complex
dirty tricks
grassy knoll
Don't cry for me, Argentina.
And here's a photo I like, complete with the foolish phrase of a newspaper editor or publisher:
When Favorite Young Man spends the evening with me, we often watch MSNBC (yeah, you know we're liberals). We're quite tired of certain phrases associated with current politics. Some are used ad nauseum by various politician or their defenders, and then they tend to be repeated by those who comment on the news. Either way, we want these words to go away:
nothing burger
double down
There's smoke, but is there fire?
big league
There isn't any there there.
Again, without Googling it, can any of you tell me the source for "there is no there there"? You earn a million bonus points if you also know the original meaning.
Infinities of love,
Janie Junebug
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| Thanks, fishducky! |
oh this is a fun trivia game Janie! Okay, grassy knoll is obviously related to the Kennedy assassination. Day that will live in infamy relates to the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Roosevelt. I would think that Dirty Tricks refers to Tricky Dick (Nixon)?? I don't know about the other two. I know Don't Cry for Me Argentina is a song but I don't know how it relates to any president.
ReplyDeleteLOVE that photo of Truman. Stupid Chicago Trib. That had to be so embarrassing.
I'm sick of the There There phrase. But I like the Where there's smoke, there's fire phrase. And in the case of the current administration, I'd say that's right on. Yep, I'm an MSNBC gal too. :) Love Rachel Maddow!!
Fun post today!
Michele at Angels Bark
We love Rachel, too.
DeleteI'm old enough to know the first set: Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, John Kennedy, Juan Peron. You threw me a bit, including Peron in the list.
ReplyDeleteI'm also old enough to be barely involved with the second list. I've heard every phrase, but only "big league" is in my vocabulary. That may be from being in a big league town, and attending one game of the last time the Cleveland Indians won a world series.
You have them except it isn't Juan Peron. A U.S. president said it.
DeleteThe quote comes from Gertrude Stein, who I believe was from Oakland, Calif. When asked about her home town, Gertrude quipped, "There's no there there."
ReplyDeleteYou're right about Stein, but the quotation is really "There is no there there," and it's something she wrote that's taken on a meaning other than what she intended.
DeleteYou've got me stumped, Janie!
ReplyDeleteYou'll see some of the answers in the comments.
DeleteFake news, tweets...there's so much every day it seems. Exhausting!
ReplyDeleteAnd the same words used over and over. I hate nothing burger.
Delete"There isn't any there there" reminds me of Bill Clinton's "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is" for some reason.
ReplyDeleteI should have used that one for Bill Clinton and didn't think of it.
DeleteI know the associations and the source of the "there-there." (The real source, referring to my city of Oakland, before the presidential one.All of them (pat on back!)
ReplyDeleteSAVE ONE: who didn't ask for Argentina to cry for them, other than Eva Peron in the the Musical Evita? You're not thinking of the former governor who went hiking in the Appalachian trail but really didn't, by any chance?
No, it's not the hiking governor who didn't hike.
DeleteThese are good ones, Janie. I'm embarrassed I don't have the answers:( The only one I'm really familiar with is..A day that will live in infamy.
ReplyDeleteNo reason to be embarrassed!
DeleteI knew most of these but the Argentina one
ReplyDeleteI bailed after Clinton. The x knew someone in the inner circle and the news "sat on" so much. Totenberg giggling that she wished AIDS on Jesse Helm's grandchildren ? Alec Baldwin call for us all to rise up and stone Henry Hyde to death. Then go and kill his wife and children and their families like they do in Africa. Then we have Kathy Griffith holding President Trumps bloody head just like the ISIS does the only thing missing was a burka.
Good and bad on both sides but somehow the liberals come out just fine and the conservatives like me are bad.
I can't watch the news, only watch the local news and some of the morning CBS news.
It is all garbage under the guise of "reporting".
As for Clinton getting away with murder, I we have Whitewater, all the ladies he was screwing in the White house instead of paying attent to the first bombing of the Twin Towers, the Mc Dougals, travelgate, plus who really killed Vince Foster.
I really want to know who killed him, Fake news started with the liberal Clintons.
By the way I am a card holding very conservative Democrat.
I'm afraid you missed the point of my post. It wasn't an attack on conservatives. I pointed out that certain phrases become associated with various people and that some of the phrases used now are getting quite tiresome. I'm not discussing politics. I'm talking about current clichés.
DeleteDo I know who said any of these statements, no bloody way
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't expect anyone who hasn't lived in the U.S. for many years to know them.
DeleteI'm embarrassed that I don't know more of these, but am looking forward to complete illumination from the comments, and maybe from you, Janie :) I know grassy knoll. That's it. Double down is one I've heard in a TV ad for some kind of burger and I don't remember which one, and that's not the answer you're looking for. And I want so badly to know the why/wherefore of "There is no there there"!
ReplyDeleteRead my post for today (Wednesday), and all is revealed.
DeleteI'm totally lost in this one, so I'll just read what others wrote and see if they know!
ReplyDeleteYou can get all the answers in my post for today.
DeleteLove the cartoon.
ReplyDeleteFishducky keeps me well supplied with grammar-related cartoons.
DeleteI can't remember which president "there is no there there" is attributed to, and I think I'm happier for it. That's a bit of an annoying phrase. It's like when someone uses "that" twice in a row, I get the word has two different meanings, but invest in a thesaurus. This is literally the first time I have read or heard or seen the phrase "nothing burger."
ReplyDeleteThe second list of phrases is associated with current politics, not necessarily a particular president. Ted Cruz started the "nothing burger." I'm shocked you haven't heard it. Shocked, I tell you.
Delete