I agree! I have quite enjoyed the SNL skit of the vice presidential debate. The skit was so well done that Italian news showed a piece of it! Italians are quite gung-ho about McCain, except here in Bologna the Red. This place has been governed by communists for a loooong time. Anyway, Mary, I hope you've seen that skit. It's worth two chuckles and a guffaw.
"they're also forced, from time to time, to answer questions, and their answers often resemble the rambling nonsense, obfuscation, and grammatical insanity that many of us would produce when put on the spot.
Yet surely, more than most of us, politicians need to be able to think on their feet, to have a brain that works quickly and rationally under pressure."
And yet, sometimes (key word: sometimes) I think that smart and qualified people aren't always great talkers. Politics demands fancy speech, which a lot of times allows them to make something look good or okay when it isn't. So I guess once in a while I'm okay with an awkward sentence - especially if it was made before having time to think completely through the issue. For me, sincerity and honesty trump grammar.
But yes, I think if you're going into politics, making sense when you speak is a huge plus. And you being a rhetoric person and all, I can see why this caught your attention. :)
And SNL has been amazing lately. My favorite is still the Palin/Clinton one.
I'm experiencing a deep failure to understand how the title relates, unless it's a brutal sarcastic dig. I'm gonna say it's 'cause I'm autistic. . .? Wait, unless it's all you could have hoped for in stuff to diagram? For your diagramming hobby?
If it is a brutal sarcastic dig, I weigh in that I am much in favor.
1. 28 Dresses Later a high-adrenaline zombie-bridesmaid thriller. When one dress too many turns the minds of the perpetual bridesmaid, they roam post-apocalyptic London, tearing to shreds everyone with well-manicured nails and biting them with their recently-whitened teeth. 2. I wake up, groggy, bed-headed, pajamaed. Lying next to me, fully dressed on top of the bed is Gregory Mankiw, the economist. "You're Greg Mankiw," I intelligently remark. He springs out of bed and stands up. "Would you like to discuss consumer surplus and tariffs?" "Why are you here?" I ask. "Don't you remember the Make-a-Wish Foundation?" 3. I was going to throw my tiara, but it turns out to be made of popcorn. "What a cheap groom I have," I think. He's already changed into jeans by the time his extensive family starts playing a traditional game of "here kitty, kitty," around the equally extensive reception grounds. I have no idea why we
In the focus group on academic motherhood, the moderator asked us, "Tell me about the support network you have--who else besides you helps parent your children?" Everyone mentioned partners and a few mentioned parents, and while they were talking, I was counting on my fingers. "There are 16 people," I said, "I would be comfortable leaving my daughter with for a weekend." Sixteen people is a lot of people, although top of that list are Lucia's grandparents, Grandma and Abuela top, bolded, and underlined. It's not just about the weekend, though. For more than a year, I've been living with my in-laws and "commuting" to my retired parents' house for work hours, largely because of the support that Grandma and Abuela are able to provide. This may be an aberration for Mary's life, but having grandmothers around are part of our evolutionary heritage : families have long depended on the support grandmas and others give, especially fo
It occurs to me that at this late stage I haven't lent my voice to the already cacophonous choruses debating the literary merits of Ms. Meyer's work. I realize that by making any sort of statement, I risk alienating good friends with strong opinions, but weighing that hazard against that of letting my friend continue in strong opinions unchecked, I have decided to go forth as originally planned. I don't think Stephanie Meyer is a bad writer. Now this isn't to say that I think her prose merits inclusion in the next Norton's anthology or that a world of Twilight would usher in the literary revolution we've been waiting for, but I've had enough of people calling her a talentless hack. Sure, maybe some lines of teenage angst strike the reader as perhaps overly melodramatic, or crudely hewn, but that doesn't make her talentless. In fact, if she's talentless, then may God bless me with the talentlessness to make the New York Times Bestseller Lists for seem
Comments
"they're also forced, from time to time, to answer questions, and their answers often resemble the rambling nonsense, obfuscation, and grammatical insanity that many of us would produce when put on the spot.
Yet surely, more than most of us, politicians need to be able to think on their feet, to have a brain that works quickly and rationally under pressure."
And yet, sometimes (key word: sometimes) I think that smart and qualified people aren't always great talkers. Politics demands fancy speech, which a lot of times allows them to make something look good or okay when it isn't. So I guess once in a while I'm okay with an awkward sentence - especially if it was made before having time to think completely through the issue. For me, sincerity and honesty trump grammar.
But yes, I think if you're going into politics, making sense when you speak is a huge plus. And you being a rhetoric person and all, I can see why this caught your attention. :)
And SNL has been amazing lately. My favorite is still the Palin/Clinton one.
If it is a brutal sarcastic dig, I weigh in that I am much in favor.
Sarah Palin honestly frightens me.
Interesting article, though. :)