Mulling over George Pope to Steve Asher 28 Jun 2005

G'day George,

 GP> On (29 Jun 05) Steve Asher wrote to All...
 SA> In what was then the futuristic, nightmare world of ''1984," written
 SA> in 1949, Orwell introduced the concepts of ''newspeak,"

 GP> written in 1948 (thus the title) -- perhaps published in 1949? 

Yes, first published in 1949, the year of its copyright.

 GP> Yeah, good old newspeak:

 GP> Some excerpts
 GP> from the _Quarterly Review of Doublespeak_ (NCTE) which you all
 GP> should find amusing:

 GP>   A reader reports that when the patient died, the attending doctor
 GP> recorded the following on the patient's chart:  "Patient failed to
 GP> fulfill his wellness potential."

Yes, AKA "negative patient outcome".

But wait, there's more:

"incomplete success": A success with a little way to go; success in
progress; ... Mission sort of accomplished ... as in "His great, if
incomplete, success in Iraq may be many things, but it's not a
triumph of the military reforms he rightly championed." 
(Wall Street Journal on Donald Rumsfeld, 12 April 2003)

"key attractor": Important attractor that drives things. "... a key
attractor that drives visitation to the region." (Victorian Govt.)

"known knowns": 
1. Things we know we know.
2. Things we know we made up.
3. Things we forgot we made up.
4. Things we forgot we knew.

"As we know, there are no known knowns. There are things we know we know.
We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say we know there are
some things we do not know. But there are also known unknowns, the ones
we don't know we don't know." (Donald Rumsfeld) Very effective when sung
to music.

"leverage": [snip] "We have leveraged different mediums and different 
angles (using film, art, poetry, photography, sound) to re-frame and
three-dimensionalise iconic Australia." 
(Consultancy to Australian Tourism Commission)

"lie":
1. (n) Untruth told with the intention of deceiving. False witness.
   (v) To deceive deliberately.
2. (n) Matter of emphasis. (v) Miscalibrate the emphasis, misspeak;
       make a non-core promise, etc.

"We were not lying. It was just a matter of emphasis." (US Official 
on WMD as the justification for invading Iraq, April 2003.

"theatre mortuary evacuation point": 
Morgue (US military)
"The Theatre Mortuary Evacuation Point occupies a forlorn cluster 
of tents at the back corner of this sand-covered base in Kuwait."
(Press report, AP, March 2004)

"transfer cases / tubes":
(US military) Metal coffin packed with ice in which corpses are removed 
from theatre mortuary evacuation points in Iraq. Formerly bodybag or 
human remains pouch.
"Outside the main tent, a hundred or metal caskets - or 'transfer cases'
- sit at the ready . . ." (Press report, AP, March 2004)

"virtual skin wear": Condoms (British).

"your call is important to us": Please hold the line.


(Watson's Dictionary of Weasel Words...)

Cheers, Steve..

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