“De-risking” in the stock market, which is a lovely euphemism for “panic selling.”
A fast-talking ad for an offering of “secure flip units,” which is a lovely euphemism for “dubious speculation.” The juxtaposition of “secure” and “flip” generates a delightful oxymoron as well.
Caption from a cartoon on legal drafting: “Never use one double negative where no triple negative will not prove unnecessary.”
Very cute. And all too common.
I need to bicker with a language not because language is unsuitable or because I fear I may be unfit for it, but because I find myself saying what I think I wanted to say after, not before, having said it. Nothing could seem more dislocated. You do not write an outline first and then spill your words on paper; you write because you cannot write an outline. You write the way you do because the other kind of writing is unavailable to you. You write unnaturally not only because you do not have a natural language, but also because writing and thinking have become unnatural acts.
To parody Michelangelo, you do not chip away at marble in order to bring out a hitherto undisclosed statue; testing the marble, hiding its imperfections, covering up mistaken chisel marks is the statue.
You write not after you’ve thought things through; you write to think things through. You chisel in order to imagine what you might have chiseled with better eyes in a better world.
—André Aciman, Parallax.
I’m reading Marie Buckley’s excellent book on writing for lawyers. Her argument for plain English is compelling:
Clients speak a modern language, so lawyers should too. Speak human.
Must remember…
