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The BBC, in attempt to milk as many pages as possible from the White House switch-over, has produced a page of Bushisms. Many are, I think, the sort of mistakes which you'd normally forgive someone who was speaking off the cuff; badly planned sentences and confused pronouns. Some are the statements of the bleeding obvious which most politicians use as rhetorical devices. Some are more worrying. My favourite, however, is a delightful example from the conjoined proverb department.

Talking in Washington in 2004, he described the enemies of free society as those who kill "at the whim of a hat".

Isn't that a lovely phrase ? I shall begin using it forthwith.
venta: (Default)
Over on her own journal, [livejournal.com profile] quisalan's been asking people for phrases they use which no one else knows. I know I've become infamous for these, so I'm not going to demonstrate again that I live on another planet from everyone else.

However, [livejournal.com profile] cryx suggested the rather marvellous "That won't get the baby ironed", an amalgam of "That won't get the baby bathed" and "That won't get the shirts ironed". Which reminded me that running two proverbs together has produced some of my favourite phrases ever.

You can't make an omelette without... killing a few people )

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