Thursday, June 28, 2007

Whatever happened to PRETTY HAIR? (A digression)

What happened to all the good advice the glamour magazines gave us on how to make our hair frame our faces -- styles to make a round face look less full, or a long, thin face look fuller? How to make soft curls or waves to flatter us?

Alas, this seems to have been forgotten in an attempt to make all our ladies in the public eye look alike, and with as little style or beauty as possible. Why?

Whenever I see these presenters, or interviewers, or anchorwomen, or even those being interviewed in the studio or the street, I say to the TV set, "Lady, did you look in the mirror before you went out in public looking like that?"

At first it was a shoulder length cut in two tiers -- two hanks hanging down shorter than the other two hanks ("a rag, a bone and a hank of hair" is all I could think of). Then even the two-tier look seemed too much of a fashion statement, and lately it's just been hair hanging there, ragged looking, no sheen, and oh, those dark roots!

Why would all these women decide like lemmings to follow who knows who into a sea of lousy hair-dos? What caused this? I can remember when everyone had the "Monica Lewinski look," but at least that wasn't actually repulsive; and we knew where it came from. This time there is no rhyme nor reason to it.

Ladies, take back your hair! Which of you will be the bellwether to come out with a beautiful hair-do, with waves or curls, and lead those sheep in a glorious revolution?

Saturday, June 23, 2007

"If you've got it, flaunt it!" (But never, never flout it!)

If memory serves, the quote above was a well-known advertising slogan that serves as a model for use of the word "flaunt" - which means to brag or act in a way that tends to self-puffery.
Examples:
  • "He flaunted his new-found wealth by standing drinks for everyone."
  • "He flaunted his new Porsche by driving around the block at 60 miles an hour."
"Flout," on the other hand, means to ignore or fail to obey. Examples:
  • "He flouted his mother's advice to take an umbrella."
  • "He flouted the speed laws by driving 60 miles an hour in a 30-mile-an-hour zone."
I'm not sure which is more common - "flaunt" for "flout" or "flout" for "flaunt." I think it's the former, but I haven't taken a poll!

Just don't flout the old slogan and you may never get it wrong again!

Thursday, June 14, 2007

What do you mean by "beg the question?"

Hello, friends! I’m glad to be back with you. I was away for awhile because of a lot of dental stuff I had to do and then I went on vacation to Cape Cod.

So this blog is titled, “What do you mean by ‘beg the question’?”

There has been a severe outbreak lately of “begging the question.” Apparently it’s a very contagious ailment which may not respond to penicillin or other drugs. It affects many of our TV pundits, and we hope it can be cleared up without too many fatalities.

The thing is, these people don’t know what “to beg the question” means. It’s a device in rhetoric that involves taking the answer for granted within the question. The American Heritage Dictionary defines it as “to presuppose the conclusion in one’s argument.”

Examples of “begging the question” are:
- “Lying is wrong because we should always tell the truth.”
- “Democracy must be the best form of government because the majority is always right.”

(Source of examples: http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-beg1.htm

When a student accuses a teacher of grading him unfairly because no matter how "excellent" his papers are, she never give him more than a C, this too is “begging the question” since he is basing his argument that she grades unfairly on the unproven premise that his essays are excellent. (Example found at http://www.grammartips.homestead.com/begging.html)

Only the most erudite among us should attempt to use the phrase in its proper form.

The way to avoid problems is to say “This raises (or gives rise to) the question: Why haven’t we done more about this?” or “Why have these methods not worked better?” or whatever your question may be.

TV pundits please take note!