Quote of the Day (Sarah Thyre, Against the Cringe-Worthy Vogue for ‘Journey’)

“Using the word ‘journey’ to describe anything other than a perilous trek through Middle-earth to throw the One Ring of Power into a volcano. (Also: You must be a hobbit.)”— Actress Sarah Thyre, on what will seem embarrassing or regrettable to our future selves, quoted by George Gurley, “Future Cringe,” The New York Times, Jan. 26, 2023

Ms. Thyre’s wish is this blogger’s command: The image accompanying this post shows Frodo (played by Elijah Wood) and his friend Samwise (played by Sean Astin) in The Two Towers, Part II of the book and film trilogy “The Lord of the Rings.”

Quote of the Day (‘A.M. Juster,’ Treating a Cliché Properly)

“If you’re crazy like a fox,
   get tested for rabies.” —Poet, translator, and essayist A.M. Juster (pseudonym for Michael J. Astrue, former head of the Social Security Administration), “Proposed Cliches,” in Sleaze and Slander: New and Selected Comic Verse, 1995-2015 (2016)
 
Some current and recent world leaders regarded themselves in this manner. For all who trust in them: Beware. As this image demonstrates, they are eyeing their next meal, and it may be you.

Quote of the Day (Joseph Epstein, on Cliches in Politics)

“In the realm of clichés in extemporaneous speech, politicians surely lead the field. Without such clichés as ‘bring to the table,’ ‘level playing field,’ ‘tipping point’ and ‘the American people,’ most would be reduced to stuttering, if not rendered speechless. The characteristic cliché-studded political sentence might run: ‘At the end of the day, given a level playing field, we have to bring to the table [blank] to allow the American people to go forward before we reach a tipping point.’” —Essayist-editor Joseph Epstein, “Having a Conversation, One Cliché at a Time,” Wall Street Journal, Sept. 19, 2019

Quote of the Day (John Leo, on How ‘Journalese’ Is Like Latin)

“Like Latin, journalese is primarily a written language, prized for its incantatory powers, and is best learned early, while the mind is still supple. Every cub reporter, for instance, knows that fires rage out of control, minor mischief is perpetrated by Vandals (never Visigoths, Franks or a single Vandal working alone) and key labor accords are hammered out by weary negotiators in marathon, round-the- clock bargaining sessions, thus narrowly averting threatened walkouts. The discipline required for a winter storm report is awesome. The first reference for seasonal precipitation is ‘snow,’ followed by ‘the white stuff,’ then either ‘it’ or ‘the flakes,’ but not both. The word ‘snow’ may be used once again toward the end of the report, directly after discussion of ice-slicked roads and the grim highway toll.”—John Leo, “Journalese, or Why English is the Second Language of the Fourth Estate,” in Russell Baker’s Book of American Humor, edited by Russell Baker (1993)

Quote of the Day (Eugene McCarthy and James Kilpatrick, on the Parameter, a Political Beast)

“To persons of limited horizons—those lacking the world view of, say, the editors of Foreign Affairs—a Parameter may look like a perimeter. It is not.  .  .  .  In the world of politics, Parameters live to be defined. Their arms embrace the illimitable and the unknowable, but usually they embrace the expendable. ‘Within the Parameters of our budget,’ people say. Then the Parameter, like the squid, emits an inky cloud and disappears.”—Eugene J. McCarthy and James J. Kilpatrick, A Political Bestiary: Viable Alternatives, Impressive Mandates and Other Fables (1979)

The recent death of retired conservative columnist James J. Kilpatrick (in the image accompanying this post) did more than bring to mind his 1970s jousts on 60 Minutes with Shana Alexander, which inspired the great Dan Aykroyd-Jane Curtin “Point-Counterpoint” skits on Saturday Night Live. It also led me to a fine appreciation of his writing skills by Andrew Ferguson in The Weekly Standard, which in turn brought to mind his collaboration with former Presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy, A Political Bestiary.

True, cartoonist Jeff MacNelly made his own, not insignificant contribution to this wry satire on the clichés that grow in the peculiar soil of Washington. But in the quote that Ferguson included—one that I’ve reproduced here—it’s easy to see the mocking wit and literary grace that the two authors—one, Kilpatrick, a DC outsider by profession; the other, McCarthy, by inclination—brought to this project.

Quote of the Day (Alexander Pope, on Poetic Cliches)

“These Equal Syllables alone require,

Tho' oft the Ear the open Vowels tire,

While Expletives their feeble Aid do join,

And ten low Words oft creep in one dull Line,

While they ring round the same unvary'd Chimes,

With sure Returns of still expected Rhymes.

Where-e'er you find the cooling Western Breeze,

In the next Line, it whispers thro' the Trees;

If Chrystal Streams with pleasing Murmurs creep,

The Reader's threaten'd (not in vain) with Sleep.”—Alexander Pope, “An Essay on Criticism” (1711)