Comments on: Call off the “attack dogs” http://www.ohmidog.com/2008/08/29/calling-off-the-attack-dogs/ a site for dog lovers Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:03:20 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: bluhawkk http://www.ohmidog.com/2008/08/29/calling-off-the-attack-dogs/comment-page-1/#comment-121 bluhawkk Fri, 29 Aug 2008 18:39:09 +0000 http://www.ohmidog.com/?p=983#comment-121 George Orwell in his 1946 essay "Politics and English Language" writes of "dying metaphors" e.g., "no axe to grind," saying that political writing is generally bad. His first rule is "Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print." It is the rare journalist that is inventive and avoids lazily reaching for the first trite phrase that quickly comes to mind. It's a pity that nothing is improved since 1946. George Orwell in his 1946 essay “Politics and English Language” writes of “dying metaphors” e.g., “no axe to grind,” saying that political writing is generally bad. His first rule is “Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.”

It is the rare journalist that is inventive and avoids lazily reaching for the first trite phrase that quickly comes to mind.

It’s a pity that nothing is improved since 1946.

]]> By: Anne-n-Spencer http://www.ohmidog.com/2008/08/29/calling-off-the-attack-dogs/comment-page-1/#comment-120 Anne-n-Spencer Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:00:09 +0000 http://www.ohmidog.com/?p=983#comment-120 The best observation ever made about politics and dogs was made almost 300 years ago by Alexander Pope: I am His Highness' dog at Kew. Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you? My guess is that the pundits have been "commentating" for so long now without a break that they wouldn't recognize an original thought if it jumped up and bit them on the nose. I have some sort of mental filter that just tunes most of it out. It's a little bit like all those sports teams out there that are still named after members of a certain ethnic group: The Braves, the Indians, the (ahem) Redskins. Some genius somewhere at some point thought that these names made the teams sound courageous and warlike. Nobody thought or cared that to the people involved they might be insulting, degrading, and demeaning. That is, until they began pointing it out. Maybe we should do the same thing for the dogs, who can't speak for themselves and who probably don't care anyway. The best observation ever made about politics and dogs was made almost 300 years ago by Alexander Pope:

I am His Highness’ dog at Kew.
Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?

My guess is that the pundits have been “commentating” for so long now without a break that they wouldn’t recognize an original thought if it jumped up and bit them on the nose. I have some sort of mental filter that just tunes most of it out.

It’s a little bit like all those sports teams out there that are still named after members of a certain ethnic group: The Braves, the Indians, the (ahem) Redskins. Some genius somewhere at some point thought that these names made the teams sound courageous and warlike. Nobody thought or cared that to the people involved they might be insulting, degrading, and demeaning. That is, until they began pointing it out.

Maybe we should do the same thing for the dogs, who can’t speak for themselves and who probably don’t care anyway.

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