“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

“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

“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

“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

“A Whitman’s Sampler Holiday Assortment of Federal Charges”—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. 

• Appearing on PBS “NewsHour” just a few hours after President Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen had pled guilty to numerous charges, Michael Mukasey, the U.S. Attorney General under President Bush 43, was asked by host Judy Woodruff to elaborate a bit on Cohen’s legal jeopardy. Mukasey’s response: “Well, he’s facing a Whitman’s Sampler holiday assortment of federal charges, including tax fraud, income tax evasion, and the like.”

© Copyright 2018  V.J. Singal

 
 

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

 

In Shakespeare, “Anywhere You Dig, You Actually Get to Some Kind of Deep Groundwater!”—Use of Visual, Evocative Expression to Emphasize One’s Point

Here’s 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 his new book “Tyrant—Shakespeare on Power,” renowned Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt explores The Bard’s relevance to the current political goings-on. Elaborating on the central theme of that publication during a “BBC World News America” interview, Greenblatt suggested: “In difficult times, it helps you to take a deep breath and look at things from an oblique angle because Shakespeare is arguably the greatest, deepest, profoundest thinker of human life.”  He then added: “One of the marvelous things about Shakespeare is anywhere you dig, you actually get to some kind of deep groundwater.”

Of special interest to students and teachers of Shakespeare:
On being asked which play of Shakespeare best mirrors our world, Greenblatt replied: “There are several, (most notably) Richard III; Henry VI, Part 2; ...”

© Copyright 2018  V. J. Singal

The President Avoided a Difficult Vote in Congress by “Enacting a Cirque du Soleil Way of Getting Around It”—Use of Visual, Evocative Expression to Emphasize One’s Point

Here’s 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.

• Discussing his new book “Our Damaged Democracy: We the People Must Act” on “Face the Nation” this past February, Joseph Califano, who was a “crucial advisor” to President Johnson and a cabinet secretary under President Carter, lamented the fact that, over the past 50 years, successive presidents had become increasingly powerful by usurping the powers of Congress. Citing the Obama administration's nuclear deal with Iran as a recent example, Califano pointed out that Obama and the Democrats were able to avoid a problematic vote in Congress (problematic because of the “Jewish vote” and “Jewish money”) by “enacting a really, you know, the Cirque du Soleil way of getting around it.”

© Copyright 2018  V. J. Singal

“Running Into the Spears of Opposing Opinion Absolutely Willingly”; A Political Campaign That Is “Kind of Hamlet Without the Prince!” —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.

• (From the Oct. 29 edition of “Face the Nation”) While commenting on the Republican tax plan which, at the time, was still being formulated, panelist Ben Domenech of “The Federalist,” a conservative publication, saying: “Republicans are always more comfortable talking about taxes than almost any other subject. This is the one area where they’ll run into the spears of opposing opinion absolutely willingly because they think it’s their issue—they think they own it.”
• This is with reference to last month’s gubernatorial election in Virginia. Recall that the losing candidate, Republican Ed Gillespie, ran on Donald Trump’s agenda (i.e., tough on illegal immigration, tough on crime...) but did not mention Trump’s name even once during his entire campaign. So, on the eve of that election, BBC’s Laura Trevelyan said to a guest: “The Gillespie campaign has been Trumpism without Trump. It’s kind of Hamlet without the Prince. How difficult a balancing act is that?”

© Copyright 2017  V. J. Singal

 

“If the Supreme Court’s Last Term Looked Like a Desert, This New Term Already Looks Like a Tropical Rainforest”; “The Natural Regenerative Juices of Capitalism”—Use of Visual, Evocative Expression to Emphasize One’s Point

Here are some 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. 

• A couple of days ago, while discussing the U.S. Supreme Court’s upcoming new term on NPR’s “Weekend Edition Sunday,” Nina Totenberg saying: “If last year’s Supreme Court term was so dry of interesting cases that it looked like a desert, this term, which opens Monday, already looks like a tropical rainforest. And the justices are only halfway to filling up their docket.” [Totenberg then went on to mention some of the numerous controversial cases that lie ahead, such as partisan gerrymandering, privacy in an age of technology, the right of a same-sex couple to buy a specially created wedding cake versus a bakery’s right to refuse the order...] 

 

• [From my 2011 archives.] Warren Buffet telling Susie Gharib of PBS’s “Nightly Business Report”: “By far the most important factor in coming out of any recession is what I call ‘the natural regenerative juices of capitalism’--people like millions of Americans trying to think of some way to do better for their families and do better for their customers. It’s always worked and will continue to work.”

© Copyright 2017  V. J. Singal

 

“Trying to Remodel the Kitchen While You’re Also Cooking Thanksgiving Dinner”; “Powerful Women are like Napalm to me”; “the Picasso of Passive-Aggressive Karate”--Use of Visual, Evocative Expression to Emphasize One’s Point

[Rewritten July 31, 2017]

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.

• Discussing the steep challenges being faced during the construction of an all-new terminal complex at Salt Lake City International Airport, their Director of Operations, Peter Higgins, telling PBS’s “Nightly Business Report” earlier this year: “In many cases--airports particularly--you end up building on the same footprint you're occupying. So, oftentimes, you're trying to remodel the kitchen while you're trying to cook Thanksgiving dinner!”

 

• [From my 2014 archives.] In response to Charlie Rose’s comment “You also create good roles for women,” famous movie director David O. Russell saying: “Yes, powerful women have become the napalm to me as a filmmaker...Melissa Leo in ‘The Fighter,’ Amy Adams in ‘American Hustle,’ Jennifer Lawrence in ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ and ‘American Hustle’... Powerful women who can clean your clock in a way you never see coming. They can surprise you; they can, as Irving (Christian Bale’s character in ‘American Hustle’) says of the Jennifer Lawrence character: ‘She was the Picasso of passive-aggressive karate.’ I love every aspect of (Jennifer and Amy)--from the glamor to the rawness.” 

   

© Copyright 2017  V. J. Singal

 

“Great Art Has Been Put Into a Coma”; “Sears is Like the Mythical Headless Horseman Wandering Aimlessly In the Night Looking for its Lost, Never-To-Be-Found Head”--Use of Visual, Evocative Expression to Emphasize One's Point

[Rewritten on May 27, 2017]

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 use of the language, especially when we are trying to break through the clutter.

 

• (From a BBC TV news report earlier this year) Commenting on the Geneva Freeport--one of the largest such fortified storage facilities in the world and which houses in secrecy over a million works of art (including hundreds of Picassos), most of which are destined not to be seen by the public for decades--a curator lamenting: “Great art has been put into a coma.”

 

A quick 101 on “free ports”: Described by some as “the greatest museums no one can see,” free ports are tax-free facilities for goods in transit and, according to the BBC, these are places “where the super-rich can secretly store their priceless art works that often include smuggled, even Nazi-looted, paintings. (As a result) great masterpieces can be incarcerated here for decades!” Thus, these free ports are a serious impediment to stamping out the illegal art trade.

 

• With reference to the fast declining fortunes of Sears (stock price plummeting over 40% in the past year and 70% in the most recent three years; sales down from $41b in 2012 to $22b in 2016), Mark Cohen, former CEO of Sears Canada and now a marketing professor at Columbia Business School, telling PBS’s “Nightly Business Report” this past winter: “Sears Holding is like the mythical headless horseman wandering aimlessly in the night looking for its lost, never-to-be-found head.”

© Copyright 2017  V. J. Singal

“We’ll be in a Hailstorm of Footwear Before Election Day”; “a David Without a Slingshot”; “The Internet is a Battlespace, as are Land, Air, and Sea”--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 use of the language, especially when we are trying to break through the clutter.

 

• Appearing on “Face the Nation” on Sunday, October 9 (two days after the leak of that 2005 hot mic tape of Donald Trump making lewd comments about women), John Heilemann of Bloomberg Politics saying: “There will (probably) be worse Donald Trump tapes between now and Election Day, and there will probably be worse Hillary Clinton emails between now and Election Day... There are more shoes to drop. We will be in a hailstorm of footwear before we get to November 8.”

• Commenting on the Syrian rebels, who have been valiantly resisting President Assad’s Russian-backed military, former Defense Secretary William Cohen telling BBC last month: “The Syrian rebels are David against Goliath, but they are a David without a slingshot!”

 

• Talking about state-sponsored cyberattacks and why some nations, most notably Russia and China, seem to be getting the better of us, Fran Townsend, former Homeland Security Advisor to President George W. Bush, saying on “Face the Nation”: “(The problem is) that we are not treating the Internet as a battlespace as we do land, air, and sea....(The U.S. must realize) that the Internet is a battlespace that we have to fight to control and win!”

 © Copyright 2016  V. J. Singal

 

“As if Some Flying Saucer Had Landed on Top of That Tower”; “It Was the Web Equivalent of a 100-Year Flood”--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 use of the language, especially when we are trying to break through the clutter.

 

• At a memorial service held on August 1 to mark the 50^th anniversary of the shooting massacre at UT Austin’s Clock Tower, Texas Congressman Lloyd Doggett (who was a student on campus on the day of the shooting) saying: “This massacre, we need to remember, occurred before terms like gun violence, mass shootings, or SWAT teams were even a part of our regular vocabulary. This campus attack was unprecedented...it was as unexpected for us in the university community and for our police dept. as if some flying saucer had landed up there on top of that tower.” 

 

• Earlier this month, while presenting his “Brief but Spectacular” view of The New Yorker to PBS “NewsHour,” the magazine’s editor David Remnick saying: “...Everybody does his or her job in a moment in time. My moment in time is not only to make the magazine as great as it possibly can be but help us cross this technological and even financial roaring river of change. The Internet is at the center of everybody’s attention... and I have to leave a New Yorker that’s got its soul as well as its technological act together.”

 

• (this one from my 2013 archives) Describing the events of Sept. 11, 2001--also known as 9/11--journalist and author Molly Knight Raskin telling PBS “NewsHour”:  “Websites were being swamped and overwhelmed by people desperate to get information on their loved ones...there was a crush of requests; it was the web equivalent of a 100-year flood! In fact, CNN.com and other well-known news websites crashed that morning.”

© Copyright 2016  V. J. Singal

“There’ll be Plaster Coming Off the Ceiling in the Chancelleries of Europe”; “He Just Jumped Through the Phone”; “the Mt. Everest of Challenges”--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 use of the language, especially when we are trying to break through the clutter. 

• Last month (July 14), following his shock appointment as Britain’s new foreign secretary, Boris Johnson (who, you may recall, was a leader of the “Leave” or pro-Brexit movement) was asked by reporters to respond to the harsh criticism of him by his now-counterparts in Western Europe. [For instance, the foreign minister of France had denounced Johnson as “a liar” just two weeks earlier.] Johnson’s response: “After a vote like the June 23 referendum, it’s inevitable that there’ll be a certain amount of plaster coming off the ceiling in the chancelleries of Europe. It wasn’t the result they were expecting. Clearly they are making their views known in a frank and free way.”

 

• During a PBS “NewsHour” segment on Trump’s early years as a Manhattan real estate developer, Gwenda Blair, author of “The Trumps,” saying: “When Donald came to Manhattan in the mid-70s, New York City was in terrible financial straits--it was on the verge of bankruptcy--and people who dealt with him in those early days say that he just jumped through the phone--he was so competitive, so ambitious, so eager, that he just jumped into the spotlight at every possibility to get any kind of attention.”

 

• (this one from my archives) In response to Charlie Rose’s question why it had taken him ten years to make the 2013 documentary “Salinger” (yes, it’s about the famously reclusive author of “The Catcher in the Rye”), filmmaker Shane Salerno saying: “It was the Mount Everest of challenges. How do you make a documentary about a man who never did a single interview; about whom there’s no film footage, there’s no audio material, the only photos that exist you can’t use... convincing people to talk was a huge challenge--took years in some cases.”

© Copyright 2016  V. J. Singal

 

“Etonian Panache”; “They’re the Dog that Caught the Car”; “Mr. Elastic”; “Enjoying the Warm Embrace of Schadenfreude”… the Brexit Shock Triggers a Stream of Stirring Expression

An expert on international affairs has described last Thursday’s Brexit referendum as “the biggest single shock to the European political system since the fall of The Berlin Wall.” Other leading analysts have echoed that sentiment. Not surprisingly, Brexit was a dominant issue this past week on “Charlie Rose,” NPR, the television talk shows last Sunday morning, and other current affairs programs. And the often animated and vigorous discussion generated an outpouring of fresh, evocative, turns of phrase. Among them: 

• When asked whether Boris Johnson (former Mayor of London and a leader of the “Leave” campaign) will be able to lead the Tories, Lionel Barber of the Financial Times saying on “Charlie Rose”: “Yes, the one adjective that sums him up best is ‘elastic.’ He’ll do what he thinks is in his interest, even if it means saying something one day and another the next day…. He’s the one person who can drop and abandon all of his past positions with the most Etonian panache!” [The above edition of “Charlie Rose” aired three days before Johnson took himself out of the running for prime minister.]

 

• While describing yesterday’s scene in the European Parliament, when the UKIP leader Nigel Farage (who, too, is deeply anti-EU and campaigned fiercely for “Leave”) in a speech taunted his audience which, still in a state of disbelief, stared at Farage with disgust and loathing, BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg quipping: “Farage is delighted at Brussels’s agony…he wants to enjoy the warm embrace of schadenfreude.” [For an insight into the word schadenfreude, which wasfeatured in my “Words of the Month” in 2011, click here.]  

• Referring to the leaders of the “Leave” campaign who, within hours of the vote, were beginning to backtrack from their criminally misleading sloganeering that had played on people’s fears, David Rennie of the Economist saying on “Face the Nation”: “(The pro-Brexiters) have kind of gone into hiding. They don’t know what to do with their win (because they don’t have a plan). They are the kind of dog that caught the car.” Appearing on the same show, Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics commenting: “The U.K. is going down the rabbit hole” (because it’s now in unknown territory)." 

© Copyright 2016  V. J. Singal