“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

“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

 
 

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

Have you checked out the latest edition (July/August 2018) of “Words of the Month,” my free vocabulary enrichment feature, which has been online since August 9? 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-3rdEdition”):

1. apotheosis

2. feckless

3. serendipitous

4. affront

5. irascible

6. impudent

 

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

 

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

Have you checked out the latest edition (May/June 2018) of “Words of the Month,” my free vocabulary enrichment feature, which has been online for about ten days? 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. bilious

2. doleful

3. prostitute (as verb)

4. bonhomie

5. cabal

6. alacrity

 

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

Vocabulary Expansion Words: New Edition of “Words of the Month”

I apologize for the inordinate delay in posting this announcement: The January/ February 2018 edition of “Words of the Month”--my free vocabulary enrichment feature--has been up for over five weeks now. 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. phlegmatic

2. emollient
3. apoplectic
4. byzantine
5. captious
6. effete

 

An Outright Affront to Humanity: the Indescribable Suffering of Children in Yemen

The video clip below is with reference to the main example for "phlegmatic" -- featured word in the January/February 2018 edition of "Words of the Month." And yes, this staggering humanitarian crisis, one of the worst since World War II, is man-made! The principal cause? The incessant and indiscriminate bombing by Saudi Arabia.

 © Copyright 2018  V. J. Singal

An Ode to New Zealand; Why That South Pacific Nation is Arguably the Most Beautiful Country on This Planet

To say “New Zealand is beautiful” is pretty much a cliché.  Before my recent three-week visit there, whenever I had mentioned my then-upcoming travel to someone here in the U.S., they had instantly remarked about NZ’s famed beauty even if they had never set foot in that land.  But I would like to posit that NZ is the most beautiful country on the planet and principally for two reasons, the second of which is likely to surprise those who have never been there.

First, about that nation’s natural heritage, and here my focus is on South Island (SI for short), which is where I spent most of my time. Just over 500 miles in length (two thirds that of California’s) and a width averaging a mere 100 miles, SI is endowed with an unbelievable diversity of impossibly beautiful physical features: It is crammed with every kind of geographical wonder we get to see in America’s national parks (save for the red sandstone landmarks of Arizona and Utah)–snowcaps and glaciers; gorges; mountain rivers and streams; waterfalls; rainforests; vast and deep lakes; fjords; sounds and other bodies of water teeming with marine wildlife and beckoning islets; and an infinitude of hills and valleys which are invariably dotted with sheep. [Yes, I constantly heard the strains of Bach’s “Where Sheep May Safely Graze” in the background. J] During our road trips, I was forever fighting the urge to stop every half mile to photograph the ever-changing (and yes, breathtaking!) scenery.

And now to the second reason for writing this love letter, this valentine: It’s that nation’s people! Anthropologists would do well to put New Zealanders under the microscope because they are not like the rest of us. Instead, the kiwis are a more refined “subspecies of Homo sapiens.” During my travels, there wasn’t a day when I did not pause to reflect on how unfailingly polite, courteous, and soft-spoken they all are, in striking contrast to the coarseness, the brusqueness, and the rudeness that has been pervading the rest of the planet at a galloping pace.  It’s as if all the kiwis were on a caboose that had become detached from a long train that had on board the rest of the world and which was speeding toward a future that promises to be cruder, more impolite, and more discourteous by the day.

I end this paean with a question that, by now, has probably arisen in your mind as well: How long can New Zealanders maintain their unique culture, and their unmatched, unrivaled social qualities, before they too are hopelessly infected by the curtness and crassness of the outside world?

© Copyright 2018  V. J. Singal

Vocabulary Expansion Words: New Edition of “Words of the Month”

Have you checked out the latest edition (November/December 2017) of “Words of the Month,” my free vocabulary enrichment feature? 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, “TheArticulate Professional-3rd Edition”):

1. bravura

2. vitiate
3. impetuous
4. tawdry
5. voluble
6. atavistic

“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

 

Electrifying 30-Second Clip Displaying Pianist Vadym Kholodenko's Technical Bravura

The concluding seconds from Prokofiev's 3rd piano concerto, as performed by Vadym Kholodenko during the 14th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition where he won the gold medal.

 

Vocabulary Expansion Words: New Edition of “Words of the Month”

Have you checked out the latest edition (September/ October 2017) of “Words of the Month,” my free vocabulary enrichment feature? 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, “TheArticulate Professional-3rd Edition”):

1. truculent

2. flaccid
3. supplicant
4. certitude
5. discomfit
6. august