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Sports Guy's editor missed something...

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Van Lingle Mungo, Jul 31, 2007.

  1. Tom Petty

    Tom Petty Guest

    never said he didn't. just pointing to a likelyhood.
     
  2. Mystery_Meat

    Mystery_Meat Guest

    and I'm just verifying that he should weep because he sucks
     
  3. jgmacg

    jgmacg Guest

    No, we remain at the point where having a basic mastery of which words mean what in which context is our job description.

    "getting that fifth spade on the river"? In Boston? On a basketball team? Really?

    Any reader over the age of about 40 might potentially read that sentence as a racist pun. Whether or not Simmons intended it; or whether or not he has readers over the age of 40 is immaterial.
     
  4. Barsuk

    Barsuk Active Member

    I agree with jgmacg, so you can cast me as one of the "PC Police" if you so choose. The deck of cards has four suits, and only one of them could be interpreted as a racial slur when plugged into this metaphor. So why use that one?

    It's the same reason you don't say someone "went down with an injury" or some team rallied for a "come-from-behind" victory. It's obvious you don't actually MEAN something sexual, but the connotation is possible, so you avoid it.

    In my view, it's not being overly PC, it's showing a little common sense.
     
  5. goalmouth

    goalmouth Well-Known Member

    I'd say Simmons is less guilty of using a bigoted term than he is of employing (yet another) shopworn cliche with the poker analogy. How fresh! How current! How now, brown cow!

    Sportsworld's most respected blogger strikes again!

    P.S. Twenty years ago I heard a guy make an emphatic point in conversation, ending with "I'm just calling a spade a shovel."
     
  6. Baltimoreguy

    Baltimoreguy Member

    Still not as bad as spearchucker
     
  7. Barsuk

    Barsuk Active Member

    Not even close.
     
  8. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    True. And seriously, wouldn't it be better all around (if you are going to use poker cliches) to refer to a new black basketball player as a diamond than as a spade?
     
  9. imjustagirl2

    imjustagirl2 New Member

    Seriously?
     
  10. Mystery_Meat

    Mystery_Meat Guest

    clubs = abuse and murder of seals
    diamonds = obviously blood diamonds
    hearts = a dig at Dick Cheney

    Sports Guy would have been better off using an UNO deck.
     
  11. franticscribe

    franticscribe Well-Known Member

    That's an urban legend that seems to have started in the 1970s. While men were allowed to beat their wives -- there was never a rule about the size of the beating tool based on the width of the man's thumb.

    http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/307000.html

    And if someone in HR tells you that you can't use that phrase because of an urban legend, I say tell 'em to stick it where the sun don't shine.
     
  12. Barsuk

    Barsuk Active Member

    Yes. Why not?
     
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