Biggles of 266
1st Level Red Feather
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2001
- Messages
- 1,126
- Points
- 36
President George Bush and the English language have had a rocky relationship.
Mr Bush, inventor of words including "subliminable" and "misunderestimate", has often drawn bewildered looks for verbal gaffes.
He was recently speaking of thousands of terrorists who had been arrested.
"We're hauling them in," he boasted. "The other day we got the fellow ... " After a pause: "I forgot the guy's name." "Moussaoui," prompted a member of the audience.
"No, it wasn't Moussaoui," Mr Bush replied, as his policy speech came to a grinding halt. "Binalshibh is the guy's name."
Though most of the recent Bushisms have gone unnoticed, there have been some memorable occasions where he has mangled a cliche or said something weird to produce awkward public moments.
Speaking about the need for the United Nations to confront Iraq's President Saddam Hussein, he told an audience at a school in Nashville, Tennessee: "We're trying to figure out how best to make the world a peaceful place.
There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, it's probably in Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on ... shame on you. It fool me. We can't get fooled again."
The evidence suggests Mr Bush was trying to say: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."
After that he decided to keep it simple. The United Nations, he insisted, "must not be fooled".
Mr Bush recently met lawmakers to discuss terrorism insurance. He then fielded questions from reporters, who ignored the topic of the meeting and asked about Iraq as the lawmakers sat tight. Appearing to sympathise, Mr Bush turned to Democrat Senator Paul Sarbanes, and said: "Thanks for serving as a prop."
An aide to Sarbanes insisted that the senator was not offended by being called a prop.
Sometimes, the president's malaprops are due simply to dialect.
In late August, he told an audience in Oklahoma that tax cuts are desirable because, "if you let people have their own money, they will demand a gooder service", and, "when somebody produces that gooder service, somebody is more likely to find jobs".
As it turns out, Mr Bush's Texas drawl masked the fact that he was really speaking of "a good or service". He corrected the problem in later speeches, referring to "a good or a service".
But, in Baltimore last week, regression. The President told Marylanders that more money in their pockets means more to spend on - what else? - "a gooder service".
Bush: Proud to be a C Student!
edit: just had to fix up a mistake made when copying this story off the net
Mr Bush, inventor of words including "subliminable" and "misunderestimate", has often drawn bewildered looks for verbal gaffes.
He was recently speaking of thousands of terrorists who had been arrested.
"We're hauling them in," he boasted. "The other day we got the fellow ... " After a pause: "I forgot the guy's name." "Moussaoui," prompted a member of the audience.
"No, it wasn't Moussaoui," Mr Bush replied, as his policy speech came to a grinding halt. "Binalshibh is the guy's name."
Though most of the recent Bushisms have gone unnoticed, there have been some memorable occasions where he has mangled a cliche or said something weird to produce awkward public moments.
Speaking about the need for the United Nations to confront Iraq's President Saddam Hussein, he told an audience at a school in Nashville, Tennessee: "We're trying to figure out how best to make the world a peaceful place.
There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, it's probably in Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on ... shame on you. It fool me. We can't get fooled again."
The evidence suggests Mr Bush was trying to say: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."
After that he decided to keep it simple. The United Nations, he insisted, "must not be fooled".
Mr Bush recently met lawmakers to discuss terrorism insurance. He then fielded questions from reporters, who ignored the topic of the meeting and asked about Iraq as the lawmakers sat tight. Appearing to sympathise, Mr Bush turned to Democrat Senator Paul Sarbanes, and said: "Thanks for serving as a prop."
An aide to Sarbanes insisted that the senator was not offended by being called a prop.
Sometimes, the president's malaprops are due simply to dialect.
In late August, he told an audience in Oklahoma that tax cuts are desirable because, "if you let people have their own money, they will demand a gooder service", and, "when somebody produces that gooder service, somebody is more likely to find jobs".
As it turns out, Mr Bush's Texas drawl masked the fact that he was really speaking of "a good or service". He corrected the problem in later speeches, referring to "a good or a service".
But, in Baltimore last week, regression. The President told Marylanders that more money in their pockets means more to spend on - what else? - "a gooder service".
Bush: Proud to be a C Student!
edit: just had to fix up a mistake made when copying this story off the net
