every person of spirit wants to ride a white horse
We have some family members who live their life in the business sector. We love them dearly, but sometimes when we expect the casual intonation of familial greetings, we get phrases that take us aback and that provide general amusement. For instance, has a family member ever called you to "confirm your call"?
It was recently suggested to me to read Strunk & White's Elements of Style on an annual basis. While I am in the painful process of revising a paper, I will do anything. In an effort to overcome "reviser's block", I picked up my copy this morning and started perusing.
Another segment of society that has constructed a language of its own is business. People in business say that tone cartridges are in short supply, that they have updated the next shipment of these cartridges, and that they will finalize their recommendations at the next meeting of the board. They are speaking a language familiar and dear to them. Its portentous nouns and verbs invest ordinary events with high adventure; executives walk among toner cartridges, caparisoned like knights. We should tolerate them--every person of spirit wants to ride a white horse. (Elements of Style, 4th ed., 82.)
This paragraph made me laugh out loud.*
*In my effort to have a little sport with another sector of society, I, in no way, intend to demean, to belittle, or to make light of in any way their valuable contribution to society--she said portentously.
Comments
O Jeanette! It's a beautiful quote! I had just been pondering (in the back of my mind) about the extraordinary vocabulary that lawyers have. And, in producing documents for the court (pleadings), they have their own grammatical system. It's quite commical as you have said. And in fact, I am just returning from an expedition to refill a toner cartridge. I say, it was nearly like tilting at windmills.
Posted by: hackenstar | 21.10.04 14:44