This Case is "a Live Torpedo in the Water”; “A Calling Card for Pigeons”—Use of Visual, Evocative Expression to Emphasize One’s Point

Here are some 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.

• While commenting on the U.S. Supreme Court’s narrow ruling in favor of the Colorado baker who had refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple because of his Christian faith, Jonathan Turley, the renowned professor of law at The George Washington University, said during an appearance on the BBC: “The Court punted...it ruled in his favor on very limited grounds (saying that the baker did not get his full due process, (i.e., a full hearing on his grievances). The result: It’s very likely that the Court will have to opine on this (free speech issue) very soon—it’s a live torpedo in the water in terms of constitutional law.”

 

• As you thumb through photographer Andrew Garn’s new book “The New York Pigeon—Behind the Feathers,” this hitherto much maligned bird will quickly climb to an all-new level of respect and admiration in your firmament. The pictures, many of which are stunning thanks to the lighting and the background, capture--among other things--the pigeons’ astonishing diversity and the iridescence of their feathers. Among the other amazing facts that emerge: these birds are so punctilious about cleanliness that when there is a lack of water, they “bathe themselves in the snow—get snowflakes under their feathers,” the author told the BBC. Indeed, Garn was not exaggerating when he added: “I wanted this book to be a calling card for pigeons—if they could walk around with this book, they could say, ‘Hey, look at us. We are actually quite beautiful!’”

© Copyright 2018  V. J. Singal