Saturday, September 09, 2006

Belching out balls in all directions

On Comment is Free yesterday, Polly writes of Charles Clarke:

Could he see a slender "plague on both your houses" window of opportunity open up? He wouldn't rule it out yesterday. Does Malvolio come to mind?

Not unless you are confusing Malvolio and Mercutio, no.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Brilliant stuff! Keep it up please it makes my day!

Anonymous said...

I'd have thought the use of scant as a synonym for few "But there are scant Clarkites." would have stretched journalistic credibility. And how many specific kinds of loose cannon are there?
In defence of Malvolio - Polly could perhaps be leading into the greatness quote in the next para., though we can't tell whether it's poor phrasing or culpable ignorance, I'd go for the first option - Clarke attempting to achieve greatness?

FactcheckingPollyanna said...

Chem Ed --

I take your point, it is possible. But then again, it's still a poor choice of imagery if that is what she means -- Malvolio was put up to it, and she says that this is "highly improbable" of Clarke.

As for the poor use of English, that would have to be a different, longer blog. Maybe less depressing, though.