“A Waiting for Godot Experience”--Use of Visual, Evocative Expression to Emphasize One’s Point

(Rewritten August 15, 2022) 

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. 

• (This one is from my archives) First, the background: In mid-January last year, an outgoing Trump administration official unnecessarily charged three Indonesian men who are Gitmo (Guantanamo) detainees.  It was done as something of “a parting shot,” just to make it harder for the incoming Biden administration to implement its stated goal of closing Gitmo at the earliest.  In response, a frustrated and indignant human rights lawyer Michele Paradis had this to say during an appearance on PBS NewsHour later that week: “...These men have been in Guantanamo since 2003...the five 9/11 conspirators have been facing trial since 2008 (but) there’s still no trial date set...(and there may never be one) because of the “dysfunctionality” of the Gitmo military commissions/ tribunals and (the revolving door) of judges.”  Paradis then added: “One thing after another has made these into a ‘Waiting for Godot’ experience.  They are the trials that everyone’s waiting for but never come.”  

© Copyright 2022  V.J. Singal

“Trying to Listen to Someone Whispering While Others are Shouting in Your Ear”--Use of Visual, Evocative Expression to Emphasize One’s Point

(Rewritten March 8, 2022) 

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. 

• As many of my readers know, radio astronomy (whose objective is “to unravel the mysteries of the universe,” to quote The Wall Street Journal’s David Winning) involves the use of gargantuan telescopes to pick up infinitesimally faint radio signals coming in from outer space.  Regrettably, the task of radio astronomers is becoming exponentially difficult because these incredibly dim signals are all too often drowned out by the far stronger radio signals emitted by an ever-widening array of “interferers” which range from satellites and cellphone towers to mobile phones and other personal electronic devices.  So, while speaking to the WSJ, Tony Beasley, director of the Charlottesville, Va., based National Radio Astronomy Observatory, used a brilliant analogy to describe a radio astronomer’s increasingly Sisyphean task: “It’s like trying to listen to somebody who is whispering while everyone else is shouting in your ear.”  

© Copyright 2021  V.J. Singal

“Whole Foods is My Daughter, and I Literally Married My Daughter Off to the Richest Man in the World”--Use of Visual, Evocative Expression to Emphasize One’s Point

(Rewritten August 15, 2021) 

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.

• On being asking about his future plans, considering that he had been in his current position (CEO of the multinational supermarket chain Whole Foods, which he founded in 1980) for over 40 years, John Mackey saying on “The David Rubenstein Show”: “...I don’t have biological children; Whole Foods for me is the equivalent of a child. It’s now grown up, not a baby anymore... So, I always make this joke that Whole Foods is my daughter and I literally married my daughter off to the richest man in the world. And I just came along to make sure that the marriage settled in well...The time will come eventually for me to leave and it’s just not yet.” [As most readers will surmise, Mackey is referring to the 2017 acquisition of Whole Foods by Amazon.] 

© Copyright 2021  V.J. Singal