Wednesday, July 1, 2009

No, Not a Pun. It's a Palindrome!


Mayor Mike likes being a question on the Regents exam, so we thought we'd pose a question for him, ELA style:

Consider the following statement:

Changing one word of the current Assembly bill on mayoral control would "resurrect the Soviet Union" and "bring back chaos."

This statement can best be described as:

a. Hyperbole
b. Idiocy
c. Both a and b
d. Euphemism

The correct answer, of course, is c. That slab of idiocy is an example of the hyperbole Mayor Mike used to try to scare people into supporting mayoral control. But at today's press conference, when the mayor was asked to explain his bizarre comment, he said "It's a euphemism." So no perfect 4 on the ELA exam for the mayor. I say we make him attend 37.5 minutes until he gets these kinds of questions right.

In fact, the mayor's statement is about as far from a euphemism as you can get. For the record, a euphemism is the substitution of a mild statement for one that is harsh or troubling. For example, instead of saying mayoral control is dead, you might say that it "sunset". Isn't that nicer?

At least he didn't say it was a pun.

2 comments:

Ready2RetireIn5 said...

Like he should talk about the Soviet Union. As always, our not so "Dear Leader" has taken it upon himself to do end-around to retain mayoral control. No City Council or public meetings to discuss and vote on the matter. Some democracy we have.

NYC Educator said...

Maybe it's nicer to say "sunset." But from all I can gather, it makes no difference whatsoever--which makes me wonder why he fought so fiercely for it, and why he had his new puppet Board of Ed. declare they wanted it renewed.