letting a chimpanzee loose in the NORAD control room
Eve Maler brings our attention to Mark Liberman seeking a name for a particular class of communication …
where you say something not because you mean it, exactly, but because it gives you a chance to use a word or phrase you’ve been saving up
I thought the word for that was blogging. The stuff in our heads is always struggling to get out. It’s willing to escape using whatever media is available.
May 1st, 2005 at 5:46 pm
Hi Ben– Hysterical! (Note, though, that it wasn’t Michael Kaplan of Microsoft but Mark Liberman of the Language Log who posed the question…)
May 1st, 2005 at 6:19 pm
Thanks Eve, I’ve fixed the names. - ben