“The Clutch is Engaging, but into Some Lower Gears Initially”—Use of Visual, Evocative Expression to Emphasize One’s Point

 Being finalized

“Strengthen the Quills of the Ukrainian Porcupine so that it’s Indigestible to the Russian Invaders”--Use of Visual, Evocative Expression to Emphasize One’s Point

(Rewritten November 18, 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. 

• In an interview this past March, about five weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson stated emphatically that even if there were to be a ceasefire in the near future, “we must support a free and democratic Ukraine in the long term,” and it is therefore imperative that the West continues arming Ukraine, thus strengthening “the quills of the Ukrainian porcupine as to make it in future indigestible to the Russian invaders.” 

© Copyright 2022  V. J. Singal

“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

“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

“You Could Read by the Light of Her Smile”—Use of Visual, Evocative Expression to Emphasize One’s Point

Last week, while helping a public speaking coaching client develop some stirring language to describe someone’s smile, I was reminded of CBS’s John Dickerson using a fresh and extremely evocative expression to compliment the late Gwen Ifill.  Dickerson’s words: “Gwen’s smile. It was so strong it greeted you before you met her. You could read by the light of her smile.”

Note that the words “You could read by the light of her smile” are not originally by Dickerson. A single Google search reveals that they first appeared in Patti Austin’s 1989 song “The Girl Who Used to be Me.” [...Oh, the girl who used to be me, she could fly, she was free
You could read by the light of her smile...]

© Copyright 2019  V.J. Singal

“It’s Like a Motorcycle Gang of Queen Butterflies”—Use of Visual, Evocative Expression to Emphasize One’s Point

Being rewritten. Will be completed by the weekend of Dec. 14-15.

“Trump Has Broken Out of the Orbit of Jupiter, But He Still Has to Go Through the Asteroid Belt”—Use of Visual, Evocative Expression to Emphasize One’s Point

Here’s another brilliant analogy by Jonathan Turley, the renowned professor of law at The George Washington University. [For my previous post featuring a similarly indelible utterance by this communicator extraordinaire, click here.]

• Appearing on CBS’s “Face the Nation” a couple of weeks ago (Sunday, March 24, just a few hours before Attorney General Barr released a four-page “synopsis” of Special Counsel Mueller’s report to a breathlessly waiting nation), Prof. Turley remarked: “The problem for Donald Trump is that even if he is cleared of (both) collusion and obstruction, that’s (only) breaking out of the orbit of Jupiter—he still has to go through the asteroid belt! [Immediate laughter around the table.] There are now a hundred different investigations that are going to hit (him)—they are smaller, but there are more of them, and (he has) to be more nimble, and that means he has to have greater self-restraint.”

To be able to analogize Trump's legal problems to the complexities (and marvels) of our solar system...there's no question that Prof. Turley has an encyclopedic mind.

© Copyright 2019  V.J. Singal

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

Have you checked out the latest edition (January/February 2019) of “Words of the Month,” my free vocabulary enrichment feature, which has been online for about a month? 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. cri de coeur

2. fiendish

3. rapprochement

4. subversive

5. aplomb

6. penurious

Answer to “Quick Quiz” in the Previous Post

To make sense of this post, you need to first read the previous one, which lays out the context in which actress Glenn Close used sublimated during her Golden Globes speech when she meant a somewhat-similar-sounding but completely different word.

I submit that the word she had in mind was either subordinated or subjugated. So her sentence would have been: “I’m thinking of my mom who really subordinated (or subjugated) herself to my father her whole life and who, in her 80’s, said to me ‘I feel I haven’t accomplished anything.’...”  Both words fit in perfectly!

© Copyright 2019  V. J. Singal

Quick Quiz: Which Word Did Actress Glenn Close Have in Mind When She Misspoke and Uttered “Sublimated” During Her Golden Globes Speech? A Case of "Synaptic Malfunction"

Recall that at last month’s Golden Globes, when Glenn Close won best actress for her performance in “The Wife,” her rousing speech went viral, especially the following lament which she uttered tearfully and with indignation: “I’m thinking of my mom who really sublimated herself to my father her whole life and who, in her 80’s, said to me ‘I feel I haven’t accomplished anything.’ It was not right!”

Clearly, the word “sublimated” does not work in the above context—it’s the wrong word and you can see why by clicking here.

Question for you: What somewhat-similar-sounding word did Glenn Close have in mind when she misspoke?  Answer in the next post.

Incidentally, the above is a case of what I call “synaptic misfire,” just as happened to the uncommonly articulate Senator Cruz some time ago (click here for that quick quiz) and to President Obama during a “60 Minutes” interview when he mistakenly uttered denigrate in place of a similar sounding word. [See the “QuickQuiz” post of May 15, 2011.]

© Copyright 2019  V.J. Singal

 

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

Have you checked out the latest edition (November/ December 2018) of “Words of the Month,” my free vocabulary enrichment feature, which has been online for about a month? 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-3rd Edition”):

1. rhapsodize

2. guileless

3. tenable

4. cantankerous

5. hegemon

6. elephantine

 

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

Have you checked out the latest edition (September/ October 2018) of “Words of the Month,” my free vocabulary enrichment feature, which has been online since early October? 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. defenestration

2. sublimate

3. extravaganza

4. irrepressible

5. ignoble

6. nihilistic