Language and its meaning II
Plenty of political stories will refer to a rough division in Gordon Brown's cabinet between the 'grey beards' and 'young Turks'. It's pretty obvious what this means, isn't it? – why, here's the youthful chief secretary to the treasury making this very point.
It's just that the phrase doesn't just mean what he seems to think it means. If I were a member of the cabinet (and you just don't know what you're missing out on) I'd be a tad wary about comparing myself to the perpetrators of the first genocide of the 20th century.
It's just that the phrase doesn't just mean what he seems to think it means. If I were a member of the cabinet (and you just don't know what you're missing out on) I'd be a tad wary about comparing myself to the perpetrators of the first genocide of the 20th century.
posted by buff and blue at 1:00 pm
3 Comments:
the Rod Stewart song of the same name also springs to mind as being no less inappropriate
There's a wonderful story (possibly apocryphal) about a News Editor and his Deputy, overheard discussing personnel issues in the gents:
Deputy: 'You know, what we need around here are some Young Turks'.
News Editor: 'I know we need some new faces - but why the fuck do they have to be Turkish?'
The same News Editor reportedly overheard some Subs having an injoke, which consisted of an adaptation of a line from one of the Flashman movies, namely: 'You are a bully and a thief, Flashman, and there is no place for you at this newspaper.'
News Editor: 'Who's this Flashman?'
Deputy: 'I dunno. Is he a freelance?'
News Editor: 'Whoever he is, get rid of him quick - he's a bully and a thief!'
Both stories are recounted in Alan Watkins' fine Fleet St memoir, A Short Walk Down Fleet Street.
Well subs do tend to be brighter, more literate and wittier than the average news editor. Though I might not be the most unbiased source for that.
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