“The Stone Age for Women in Banking”; “The Musical Mt. Everest”—Use of Visual, Evocative Expression to Emphasize One’s Point

(Rewritten June 8, 2021)

Here are a couple of recent examples of highly effective communicators 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 analogies, especially when we are trying to break through the clutter. 

• Referring to the near absence of women in banking when she went to work for Morgan Stanley in the 1980s, Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat saying on “The David Rubenstein Show”: “When I started at Morgan Stanley, it was 1987, and so it was a sort of Stone Age for...the role of women in banking. The general attitude was that those of us who were there would get married, have kids, and leave...that was the ethos in Wall Street.” 

• Welcoming the famous Chinese concert pianist Lang Lang to her show last fall, the highly accomplished British-Iranian journalist and TV host Christiane Amanpour telling the audience: “The virtuoso has taken on one of Bach’s most glorious and difficult works--the ‘Goldberg Variations,’” and then, turning to her guest, saying: “You’ve been playing the ‘Goldberg Variations’ since you were a kid. They call it the ‘Musical Mt. Everest.’ What is it about this work that really grabs you?”

© Copyright 2021  V. J. Singal

“No Point in Playing Around with Bows & Arrows of Negative Interest Rates If You Are Actually Using the Bazooka of ...”—Use of Visual, Evocative Expression to Emphasize One’s Point

Here is a recent example of a highly effective communicator using a vivid, evocative expression while emphasizing something and thus making his assertion indelible—an example which, I hope, will inspire the rest of us into similarly imaginative analogies, especially when we are trying to break through the clutter.

• During a recent edition of “Marketplace Morning Report,” when David Kelly (the highly regarded Chief Global Strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management) was asked whether he expected the Fed Reserve to “take a page” from Europe’s central bankers and go negative on interest rates, he responded: “I hope not...The current monetary policy is by far the most stimulative we’ve ever had... So, no point in playing around with bows and arrows of negative interest rates if you are actually using the bazooka of monetizing the federal debt and that’s what the Federal Reserve is doing.”

© Copyright 2020  V.J. Singal

Strengthening Your Command of the Language: New Edition of “Words of the Month”

If you’ve still not checked out the March/ April 2020 edition of “Words of the Month,” my free vocabulary enrichment feature, I would urge you to do so right away. It will be removed from my website later this week, possibly as early as tomorrow. 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. paean

2. moribund

3. obsequious

4. de rigueur

5. acuity

6. Svengali

Strengthening Your Command of the Language: New Edition of “Words of the Month”

If you’ve still not checked out the January/ February 2020 edition of “Words of the Month,” my free vocabulary enrichment feature, I would urge you to do so right away. It will be removed from my website by this coming Sunday. 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. fantasia

2. genuflect

3. scintillating

4. apocalyptic

5. catatonic

6. recondite

“Polling is the Crack Cocaine of Political Journalists”; “Worried About Breaking Their Rice Bowl”—Use of Visual, Evocative Expression to Emphasize One’s Point

Being rewritten

Strengthening Your Command of the Language: New Edition of “Words of the Month”

If you’ve still not checked out the November/December 2019 edition of “Words of the Month,” my free vocabulary enrichment feature, I would urge you to do so right away. It will be removed from my website sometime tomorrow. 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. inestimable

2. petulant

3. cede

4. ham-handed

5. exultant

6. desiccated

“Imagine Jumping Into a Pool Filled With Milk and Opening Your Eyes”—Use of Visual, Evocative Expression to Emphasize One’s Point

This example is from the immediate aftermath of the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and seven others. As news reporters and law enforcement officials frantically combed the area looking for eyewitnesses to the tragedy, the comments by a Scott Daehlin made it all the way to that day’s ABC Evening News. Why? Because Mr. Daehlin, presumably one of numerous Los Angeles County residents who had seen or heard the chopper just before it went down, was brilliantly imaginative during his brief exchange with the reporter.  Here’s how that conversation went:

ABC reporter: “How thick was the fog?”

Mr. Daehlin: “It was thick! Imagine jumping into a pool filled with milk and opening your eyes.”
ABC reporter: “...You can hear the helicopter?”
Mr. Daehlin: “Yes, but I can’t see anything. All of a sudden, it’s above me—I can hear it but can’t see it.”
 

I salute Scott Daehlin for coming up with such an amazingly vivid and evocative metaphorical expression to make his point. Very inspiring!

 

© Copyright 2020  V.J. Singal