“The Subtlety of a Panzer Division Rolling into Poland”; Trump’s Beliefs “Begin and End with the Morning Mirror”--Visual, Evocative Expression to Emphasize Something

Here are some recent examples of articulate people using a vivid, evocative expression while emphasizing something and thus making their assertion indelible--examples which, I hope, will inspire the rest of us into similarly imaginative use of the language, especially when we are trying to break through the clutter.

• Bette Midler, talking to CBS Sunday Morning’s Mo Rocca about her role of legendary talent agent Sue Mengers in “I’ll Eat You Last,” saying: “After the show, I immediately marched up to (Barbara Streisand) with all the subtlety of a panzer division rolling into Poland and said ‘Listen, kid, you are going…,”

 

• [From the Friday, July 31, 2015, edition of PBS’s “NewsHour] While discussing the differences between Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, the two presidential candidates creating the most stir in their respective sides of the political aisle, panelist David Brooks, who is a conservative columnist, saying: “Trump and Sanders have different belief styles; not sure Trump believes in anything except, you know, his belief system, sort of, begins and ends with the morning mirror. But Sanders actually believes in something—he is intellectually consistent, and intellectually rigorous. His beliefs are coherent…”

© Copyright 2015  V. J. Singal

 

Vocabulary Expansion Words: New Edition of “Words of the Month”

Have you looked at the latest edition of “Words of the Month,” my free vocabulary enrichment feature, which has been online since yesterday? Here are the six featured words, all of which lie within the conversational vocabulary of America’s most articulate (as is the case with all of the words featured in my book, “The Articulate Professional-3^rd Edition”):

1. despoil

2. insouciant
3. surpassingly
4. illusory
5. doctrinal
6. inchoate