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Maureen Dowd: "Barry"

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Dick Whitman, Aug 12, 2013.

  1. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    And if they wrote it like Dowd does, it'd be low-rent on their part, too. Yes, he used to use that name. And now she's using it to belittle him. To cut him down to size. It's childish. But you can't see that, because you hate him.
     
  2. da man

    da man Well-Known Member

    Hardly. I just think columnists do stuff like this all the time and have forever. They diminished Bush and Clinton before him and Reagan and Carter and so on and so on. And this isn't even a snide moniker like the Slick Willie and Tricky Dick you mentioned. It's just a form of his name he used to use.

    In fact, he might still use it for all I know. Do his buddies call him Barry? I have no idea, but there's actually a chance Dowd is playing the old Johnny Carson name-dropping-to-show-I-know-these-guys-personally card -- remember how Johnny would refer in passing to his friends Chuck Heston and Bobby DeNiro, and would call Liberace "Lee"?
     
  3. dooley_womack1

    dooley_womack1 Well-Known Member

    I think that any name concept that matches up with one done by Carlton Banks is inherently suspect.
     
  4. old_tony

    old_tony Well-Known Member

    Speaking of which, isn't it time that thread re-opens?
     
  5. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    "'Ol Wooden Teeth"

    Actually, it was probably, "Ye Olde Wooden Teeth"
     
  6. ColdCat

    ColdCat Well-Known Member

    "W" and "Barry" are a false equivilincy since Bush supporters routinely used "W" and there were plenty of "W04" bumper stickers (hell I saw an old, weathered one yesterday). For our current president, isn't Barry a name he took on early in life to avoid intolerance towards his own name? There have been plenty of people (including TV people I've worked with) who go by a more anglo sounding name because there are closed-minded individuals out there who don't take kindly to anything ethnic-sounding. If that is why a young man named Barack decided to go by Barry for a while, isn't calling him that now throwing that fear of intolorance back in his face and perhaps showing that we aren't entirely over our fear of anything that isn't 100% WASPy?
     
  7. da man

    da man Well-Known Member

    Geez, you people are really overthinking this.

    Is Barry less respectful than Shrub? How about Slick Willie? BTW, there were many who called Bush W but spelled it Dubya. Respectful or not? And I still think there's a chance Dowd was trying to pull the look-at-how-inside-I-am name-dropping thing.

    It's part of the game, guys. Columnists all have their schtick, and some of that includes their own little nicknames -- often unflattering -- for public figures like the president. This has been going on in the U.S. for a couple of centuries now. Some presidential nicknames, which I'm sure found their way into print: His Little Majesty, His Accidency, President Malaise, Silent Cal, King Andrew and Mad Tom.

    There's even a Sporcle game about it: http://www.sporcle.com/games/klangston25/us-presidents-by-derogatory-nickname

    According to the game, Grover Cleveland might be the king of these. He was called such things as His Obstinacy, the Stuffed Prophet, the Elephantine Economist and Uncle Jumbo. And I love this one for Rutherford B. Hayes: "Queen Victoria in Riding Breeches".

    This whole thing reminds me of that thread where many went berserk over the picture of Sarah Palin in shorts on the running magazine cover and forgot that every candidate in the history of politics (at least since photography was invented) has posed for some ridiculous photo op.

    To all of you, I say: Sheesh! Lighten up, Francis.
     
  8. deskslave

    deskslave Active Member

    I think the relatively infrequent deviations into politics on other threads have largely demonstrated that it would serve no purpose. When every 25 posts had three about politics and 22 about name-calling, "my thread", etc., there was no point to it.

    And yes, I was a reader, although not a poster. But even if I had been a poster, I'd have given up long ago. Get rid of the trolls, and maybe it becomes worthwhile.
     
  9. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    Well, at least the Times isn't making her undergo sensitivity training.

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/aug/13/rodeo-clowns-asked-take-sensitivity-training/
     
  10. ColdCat

    ColdCat Well-Known Member

    Toby Keith is playing the State Fair on Friday. I'm sure he can make the rodeo clown's act look tame if he sets his mind to it.
     
  11. Tarheel316

    Tarheel316 Well-Known Member

    Get rid of the trolls and then the thread would be a ghost town.
     
  12. deskslave

    deskslave Active Member

    Which answers the question of why it's not come back, I would assume.
     
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