“It should be illegal, what happens,” said Donald Trump. What is happening? People are criticizing Supreme Court justices and other judges. “These people should be put in jail, the way they talk about our judges and our justices,” said Trump. He said it on Monday. It barely made the news. It is dog-bites-man, I suppose.
Kamala Harris says get rid of the Senate filibuster? Norm-busting. You know what’s norm-bustier? Proposing to jail Americans for criticizing judges.
Anyway, à chacun son goût. This issue leads my Impromptus today. I also have Latin America, capital punishment, Calvin Coolidge, and other issues. Give it a whirl.
There has been flooding in Poland and other countries in that region. The Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, explained to the public that German troops would be on hand. “If you see German soldiers, don’t panic,” he said. “They’re here to help.”
I noted this in my Impromptus on Tuesday. A reader writes,
Ronald Reagan used to quip, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’” In Poland, you can add the word “German” before “government.”
All joking aside, it’s good to see this kind of cooperation, in light of history.
Readers and I have been discussing the expression “I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck” (an expression I learned from the first President Bush). One reader now says, “Don’t forget this one: ‘I was born at night, but not last night.’” Another reader says, “I always heard, ‘I was born in the morning, but not this morning.’”
A reader writes,
Sir,
I read your latest musings on language. I read them just after trying to untangle a weird mix of pronouns in my local newspaper, the Post and Courier of Charleston, S.C. (page 1, 9/19/2024). With politically correct use of pronouns, newspapers can really flummox their readers.
They sure can. The report in question begins,
Democratic state Rep. Marvin Pendarvis has resigned from his seat amid an ongoing investigation into a case that led to the suspension of the North Charleston attorney’s license to practice law earlier this year.
So far, so good (mainly). (The state representative is also the North Charleston attorney? Is there a neater way of indicating that?)
But the second paragraph reads,
Pendarvis, a civil rights activist who was just 27 years old when he won his 2016 election, was accused in April of offering hush money to a legal client after allegedly forging their signature on a settlement without his knowledge.
Who/what/huh?
In an Impromptus last week, I remarked that “husband and wife” is natural, whereas “wife and husband” is not. One phrase comes naturally to the tongue, the other does not. Same with “mom and dad.” That is natural. Almost no one says “dad and mom.”
A reader writes,
On my wife’s side of the family, at least, it’s the closest relative who goes first. Thus, “Donna and Paul” and “Mike and Gail.” Just seems natural, blood being thicker than water.
Yup! My thanks to one and all readers and correspondents.