Language Play of the Week

Every now and then I read something - a phrase, a turn of thought, and I think, "wow, Writer Dude, you just nailed that". OK, I realize that my last sentence wasn't exactly an example of the kind of effective writing I'm talking about, but you get my point. So, Mad Padre begins a new feature, entitled, "Language Play of the Week".

To start it off, David Rothkopf, in an opinion piece on why it's too early to rate Barack Obama as a President, earns this week's pick for his post-modern riff on an overused rhetorical phrase that he drops into his sentence.

"It was a well-argued, quite passionate piece. The problem with it was that it was arrant nonsense. (I recognize that the term "arrant nonsense" should usually be reserved for gaunt English character actors playing the Sherriff of Nottingham but in this instance it fits, and if you heard me say it with my not-so-plummy Central New Jersey accent, you wouldn't think it sounded half as pompous as it might appear in print.)"