October 14, 2017

Reading Hillary's book, Part 1: "mustered."

I wasn't going to buy Hillary Clinton's new book — "What Happened" — because I did not want to read it. And if you're thinking Althouse is going to read it, so we don't have to you're wrong. I'm not going to read it. But I am going to blog it. I bought it because Meade asked me to put it in our Kindle  account, because — a propos of the Harvey Weinstein exposé — he had some search terms to apply to the text.

Now, Meade is doing something with the text that I'll call proto-blogging: He reads and speaks aloud the kinds of thoughts I might have if I were doing the reading. And that might get me to something I want to put in writing here on the blog. You'll just have to imagine the Meadhouse interplay that precedes the posts in this series. I'll just say he's the one who's kind-of/sort-of reading the book, we have conversations, and I dip into the text to get things to spin out for this new series.

So Meade is going to almost read it, so Althouse doesn't have to, so you don't have to. But it will be prime stuff. Nothing is blogged here unless I think it's blogworthy. Everything in this series is 100% guaranteed interesting. To me.

I've heard it said that the first maybe 100 pages of the book is a pretty good read, but after that it gets boring. I don't know if that's true, but I have found evidence that the first chunk of the book had a different author (or editor) than the rest of the book. The evidence is the word "muster," which I used to find a section of the text Meade and I were talking about, a section about Hillary's decision to show up for the swearing-in of Donald Trump. The passage in question ended with:
That’s how I ended up right inside the door of the Capitol on January 20, waiting to be announced. It had been such a long journey to get here. Now I just had to take a few more steps. I took Bill’s arm and squeezed it, grateful to have him by my side. I took a deep breath and walked out the door with as big a smile as could muster.
We were making various jokes — such as interjecting "I didn't inhale" after "I took a deep breath" — and got to talking about the word "muster" — which I said was like "garner." (I first blogged my objection to "garner" here.)

I wanted to blog various things about the Trump inauguration scene, and to get to the text, I searched for the word "muster." It was a good search term because I remembered it from our conversation, and it's unusual enough not to be likely to appear too many times in the text. Here are the results of the search:
The word appears 4 times in the book, and all 4 are in the first 100 pages. I don't have the kind of sophisticated software that can be used to detect whether various texts are written by the same author, but I think such software looks for many examples like this. I'm just entertaining the hypothesis that someone was involved in writing of the first 100 pages who did not work on the rest of the book.

Also, I'd like to say that "muster" is a rather silly word, though its true silliness only emerges when you use the past tense and create the homophone with "mustard." (If you did the Thursday NYT crossword this week, you might have enjoyed or groaned over the use of this homophone at 16 Across.) But "muster" is an okay word. I've used it 4 or 5 times in the 50,000+ posts on this blog, but I don't like to see it coming up 4 times in 100 pages. That's over reliance on a distracting word that could be replaced by words you would be more likely to use in conversational speech, like "pull up" or "bring together."

There's a phoniness to "muster" when someone uses it to convey how it feels to draw upon your inner resources to do something you need to do. In the above-quoted example, Hillary "walked out the door with as big a smile as could muster." Later, on page 41, she's talking about another loss, not to Donald Trump but to Barack Obama:
By the end, he led in the all-important delegate count, but our popular vote totals were less than one-tenth of a percent apart. That made it all the more painful to accept defeat and muster up the good cheer to campaign vigorously for him.
Again, the word is used in the context of holding back negativity and putting on a game face. The phony-sounding word aptly expresses her being genuinely phony on those 2 occasions.

On page 32, there's:
I prayed that my worst fears about Donald Trump wouldn’t be realized, and that people’s lives and America’s future would be made better, not worse, during his presidency. I’m still praying on that one, and I can use all the backup you can muster.
That seems to say: Yeah, I know this reference to prayer is bullshit. If she really believed in prayer as a defense against Trump at his worst or even just thought her readers took prayer seriously, I think she would have said something more like: and I hope you are praying too. Or: and I know many of you pray that God will give our president wisdom and good judgment. (And I don't like saying she "can use all the backup" as if she's the prayer leader and we're behind her.)

Finally, on page 92, we get the last "muster" in the book, and it's in one of these goofball girly passages:
Someone once asked what we talked about on long flights. “Food!” we chorused. It’s funny how much you look forward to the next meal when you’re living out of a suitcase. In 2008, we often relied on junk food to see us through; I remember a lot of pizza with sliced jalapeños delivered right to the plane. This time I was determined that we would all be healthier. I asked friends for good on-the-go snack recommendations. A few days later, shipments of canned salmon, as well as Quest and Kind protein bars, arrived at my house, which we lugged onto the plane in canvas totes. When the Quest bars got cold, they were too hard to eat, so we sat on them for a few minutes to warm them up, with as much dignity as one can muster at such a moment.
This is the best use of "muster" in the book, because she's describing something silly: sitting on her food to warm it up. And the thing being mustered — dignity — is supposed to be funny. There's no dignity in using your ass as a makeshift microwave.

By the way, "muster" comes from the Middle French word "monstrer" which means "to show," which is the same source for "demonstrate," which is a much better word, that is, a word you can use in casual conversation without seeming weird.

116 comments:

David Begley said...

I thank God every day that the Clintons are not back in the White House. That's the only comment I can muster at this time.

And have you ever had Woebler's mustards? Great varieties.

tcrosse said...

"Muster" is a word commonly used in the Military, FWIW. In the USN we would Muster each morning, as Hillary would have done in the Marines.

JAORE said...

Hillary suggested "summon" instead of muster. But each time she did smoke filled the room and demons appeared.

Sebastian said...

"But I am going to blog it." We need a book on how to blog a book you haven't read.

Prediction: Althouse blogging the book she hasn't read will be more interesting than the book itself.

Too easy, I know.

Paddy O said...

Old professor joke:

A professor was asked if he had read a new book in his field

"Read it? I haven't even taught it yet!"

Bob Ellison said...

"I'm not going to read it. But I am going to blog it..."

Don't you get that book for free? You're a commentator. Don't people who still try to sell dead trees for money send freebies to commentators?

Bob Ellison said...

I'll bet money that if you email them "I will write about this", you'll get a nice hard-bound book in the mail via FedEx.

Barbara said...

Thanks for saving me from buying it. I'm glad to experience it third hand.

Darrell said...

Then there was the time that Hillary thought she sat on a candy bar to warm it up and it turned out she had forgotten to put on her Depends.

Now I Know! said...

Hillary and Amazon thank you for your business.

Quaestor said...

The eager young cadets mustered on the parade ground with relish.

Laslo Spatula said...

"Hillary and Amazon thank you for your business."

The comment equivalent of ejaculating into a potted plant.

I am Laslo.

Wince said...

There's no dignity in using your ass as a makeshift microwave.

There's another word that comes to mind when I think of anything, much less food, pressed between that large posterior and a foam seat on a long flight.

That word is musty.

Bob Ellison said...

Then there's that story about the farmer who got an award from his peers.

And...no, let's not go there.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

I'm not going to read it. But I am going to blog it.

How to blog about books you haven't read.

Fernandinande said...

What ham is have a trichinosis?

Rodham.

Fernandinande said...

Ignorance is Bliss said...
How to blog about books you haven't read.


How to comment without reading the post.

robother said...

Colonel Muster in the Oval Office with a Cigar.

William said...

I wonder if she put the candy bar between the ass cracks to hasten the heating process. Did the chocolate melt and run? The thought of Hilary sitting on and hatching a candy bar is kind of disgusting. This folksy anecdote does not serve to humanize her. Rather the opposite.

Fernandinande said...

Bob Ellison said...
Then there's that story about the farmer who got an award from his peers.


Because he was out standing in his field?

Earnest Prole said...

Monstrer is the root of one of my favorite words, remonstrance. There was a high-school teacher long ago who would begin each class with "Remonstrances" where any student could state a grievance against any classmate and have it adjudicated by the entire class. Mostly funny, sometimes serious.

Quaestor said...

This time I was determined that we would all be healthier.

All those personal questions we faced daily about taste, about comfort, about contentment... those are HER decisions.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

This will be fun. A veritable Ghost of Christmas Present showing up with a cornucopia of schadenfreude. Some days, when Netflix looks like a wasteland and the boy is late with my copy of the Times, I like to search Althouse 2016 election tags and relive the Terror and the Glory.
Hillary Clinton is not President, forever and ever. Amen.

TerriW said...

"It’s funny how much you look forward to the next meal when you’re living out of a suitcase."

I found this particularly noteworthy, because it's really not universally true, and pretty much the exact opposite reaction I had. When all my meals had to be restaurant or take out during an extended (a little over one month) period of living out of hotels, my first thought (as the person who usually does all the cooking, and isn't a particularly "good" cook) : wonderful!

But it didn't take long before I was well sick of it, and would skip meals far more frequently. Eating began to feel like a chore.

Trumpit said...

"I said something to her that made her madder." "made her madder" sounds funny, so it made me laugh. I love Althouse's posts on language. She is witty and makes me laugh without fail.

tcrosse said...

An interesting use of textual analysis is to try to identify the author, although most of the HRC œuvre seems to have been written by machine.

madAsHell said...

I see here that Nancy Pelosi is now having her comments edited for clarity.

It seems that some people are just empty shells upon whom we cast our hopes, and desires. We have teams of scribes to prop up these faltering facades.

tcrosse said...

For the benefit of all you Pagans, let me demonstate a Monstrance

Monstrance

Darrell said...

"Huma? Can you be a dear and take care of my toe cheese? "
Huma--under her breath--I swear, I should have chosen the suicide bomber program when the Brotherhood asked!

robinintn said...

What the ghost writer wrote: "...which we lugged onto the plane...".
What Hillary said: "...which I ordered the asshole SS Agents to lug on to the goddam fucking plane and get me another bottle of vodka...".

Fernandinande said...

Muster a Ducati Monster and garner remonstrance.

chuck said...

Nixon may be gone, but we will always have Hillary to kick around.

Narayanan said...

Muster = fall in to be inspected?

Michael K said...

"Muster" is also used in Australia for what we would call a "round up" of cattle.

Mary Beth said...

My impression of "muster" is that it's a more British than American usage. Just glancing at Google trends, it looks about twice as common in the UK as here.

According to an online dictionary, "muster" is also used to describe a group of peacocks.

DavidD said...

"But it will be prime stuff."

I got that far and had to comment.

That sounds just like the kind of promise PDT would make.

We'll be watching. Closely.

DavidD said...

Separately, I saw on a HW story how HRC said that with PDT we have a sexual harasser in the Oval Office.

That's rich when it was WJC who was a sexual harasser in the Oval Office in the Oval Office.

The woman has no shame.

Narayanan said...

Memory ... What difference at anytime does it ever make??!!

Rob said...

If your quotation from Hillary is acccurate, she's missing a word. "I took a deep breath and walked out the door with as big a smile as could muster." As could muster? There's no way that shouldn't be "as I could muster."

I do love the idea of Hillary as prayer leader. What arrogance it takes for her to imagine she is the one God is primarily listening to, and all others are backup. Is it too much to hope this is an invention of her ghostwriter? Yes, probably it is.

Bob Boyd said...

Reporters assigned to the campaign would jostle and elbow one another viciously whenever Hillary mustered them to choose which lucky journalist would be allowed to warm her granola bar.

cubanbob said...

When will this woman finally muster the decency to just go away?

MadisonMan said...

I have always enjoyed your blog posts on words. And this one is no different!

It is fascinating to use Kindle to analyse the different parts of the text, completely, that is, and not with just one word, however odd that one word is.

Hagar said...

Do any of these people write their own books anymore?

tcrosse said...

I do love the idea of Hillary as prayer leader.

I saw an interview with Thomas Frank in which he revealed that Hillary is actually a pious Methodist, and can quote Scripture book, chapter, and verse. Whether she takes any of it to heart is another matter.

robother said...

"But it will be prime stuff." Is our blogress deploying subliminal hints to use Amazon?

In any case, I prefer that she use the less formal "primo shit" in the parlance of our generation.

JMS said...

It's funny a paragraph about food and diet showed up. I interpret it as another attempt to humanize her image and make her seem more relatable. Those efforts always had the opposite effect on me. Not only did it come across as insincere, but it made her look less competent and less presidential. Margaret Thatcher was a food chemist who loved to cook, yet I don't remember any occasions as PM where she talked about food or diet. I think women like Hillary and Nancy Pelosi hurt the cause of women in politics.

Drago said...

Hillary was able to muster up the astonishing "courage" to brave sniper fire as she serpentined her way to an airport hangar, walking on-stage with a political opponent should have been a piece of cake for a hardened combat veteran such as herself.

That's the kind if action some LLRs would term "magnificent"

pacwest said...

Suggestion: Buy the hardcopy, feed it to the dog, and then have Meade sort through it to report on the juicy tidbits. Either way it is a steaming pile of. At least this way Meade wouldn't have to get his hands dirty by actually handling the book.

Christy said...

Maybe muster is an Tennessee Volunteer/ Appalachian Scots-Irish/ gun culture word, because I find it familiar in the bits you quote.

Hagar said...

"Muster" is a perfectly good military term meaning that the respective personnel is gathered and lined up for a headcount.

Personal constant irritation: "All personnel present and accounted for, Sir!" should be ".... or accounted for ...."

Drago said...

I saw an interview with Thomas Frank in which he revealed that Hillary is actually a pious Methodist, and can quote Scripture book, chapter, and verse.

I wonder what the most appropriate verse would be for someone destroying the victims of her husband's sexual assaults.

I'm guessing it would have to be a doozy.

Probably just a very loose paraphrase.

bleh said...

I don't believe Hillary wrote any of that book. She sat for interviews and reviewed drafts, sure, but she didn't sit down at a computer and wrote a memoir. Ditto Bill's autobiography. Ditto Obama's two books.

Campaigns are teeming with aspiring writers, and they are self-selected to want to do a good job for the candidate, at a fair price too.

Bob Boyd said...

A lot of hopeless Squat Cobblers started with cold granola bars. They had no idea what they were getting themselves into.

rcocean said...

"It’s funny how much you look forward to the next meal when you’re living out of a suitcase."

Oh good grief. Hillary was not "Living out of a suitcase". The primary nature of her campaign was how little she traveled and how few speeches she made. Not only that but she stayed in large hotel suites with kitchen facilities and could easily have brought along a cook (she is after all a multi-millionaire).

Yes, I'm sure she munched on a few protein bars, but if she was eating "tons" of Pizza, its because she wanted to.

Paco Wové said...

"we often relied on junk food to see us through; I remember a lot of pizza with sliced jalapeños delivered right to the plane. This time I was determined that we would all be healthier"

Hillary Clinton's Campaign Runs on Pizza and Anal, thrillist.com

M Jordan said...

I don’t believe a single word Hillary or her ghostwriter says. It could be true that they are pizzas on the plane ... but it could be false. If there’s a reason to make that claim, then pizzas it was.

This woman survived, not coming under a hail of gunfire, but in saying that she did when video shows clearly otherwise. Safire called her and Bill “congenital” liars. Bill definitely was a “genital liar,” as Paula Jones proved. Hillary is just a con. So Safire got it right.

JML said...

Speaking of mustard, there is a great Mustard Museum in Middleton. If you are in the Madison area I highly recommend it. And then get pie next door at Hubbard Diner.

Fabi said...

Did she use the phrase "we'll head them off at the pass"?

holdfast said...

"So Meade is going to almost read it, so Althouse doesn't have to, so you don't have to."

This is some high-quality outsourcing!

tcrosse said...

Soon to be a Major Motion Picture. Streep is already trying on Pantsuits.

Earnest Prole said...

Speaking of mustard, it’s a primary Christian metaphor for faith, and thanks to tcrosse it will now forever be linked in my mind to the image of the monstrance.

buwaya said...

One mustered ones soldiers to demonstrate to ones superiors that the soldiers one was being paid to maintain actually existed and were in a servicable condition. This was part of the ancient European mercenary tradition. Military parades, the manual of atms, etc. along with much of the language come from this also, the contracted rituals of military mobilization in the early modern era.

The implication in "muster" always seemed directed to externalities, to appearances, to verification of standards.

Levi Starks said...

Althouse and Mead,
Doing the Lords work.....

Earnest Prole said...

"Muster" is a perfectly good military term meaning that the respective personnel is gathered and lined up for a headcount.

From which we derive the idiom pass muster. And Hillary's lifelong problem is that she has repeatedly failed to pass muster despite being the smartest woman, and therefore person, in the world.

rhhardin said...

As much help for Trump as God can muster.

David Begley said...

She travels with her own hair stylist. Hardship.

rhhardin said...

Mary Kissel (WSJ) sits in for absent Troy Senik hosting Epstein and John Yoo.

https://ricochet.com/podcast/law-talk-live-techology-law/

She slams Yoo down 2 minutes in for patronizing her as a girl. Puts Yoo off his game for a bit.

Podcast on high tech war rules.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Hillary might be a professor at Leftwinger U.
What will she teach? How to be a crook?

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I wonder if Harvey Weinstein would have been in her cabinet?
John Podesta as lead vampire in the parliament of whores.

Ann Althouse said...

"Don't you get that book for free? You're a commentator. Don't people who still try to sell dead trees for money send freebies to commentators?"

I want digital text to search and to copy and paste. I get some free books sent, but it's mostly stuff I don't want to write about, where people are trying to use me as a publicity outlet. You'd have to pay me a lot more than a free book for that. And I hate to feel obligated.

I tend to get law books sent to me.

Mark said...

I've heard it said that the first maybe 100 pages of the book is a pretty good read, but after that it gets boring.

Whaddya mean? It's tedious already with that excerpt from page 4. ENOUGH. We've had enough Hillary to last a thousand lifetimes.

MayBee said...

" “Food!” we chorused."

That may be the most pretentious three words ever written in a political memoir.

MayBee said...

We chorused.

gross

AllenS said...

Oh, go ahead and attack Hillary, but it must have taken a lot inner strength to muster the courage to dash across that air field dodging sniper fire.

roger said...

muster some proto-blogging sounds degenerate to me.........

dont you have some wholesome yard work to do on a saturday?

rehajm said...

All this indirect stuff like watching an eclipse or arc welding.

Lucien said...

"Muster" and "mustard" are for amateurs. For real fun, try "gamut", "gambit" and "gantlet" (and perhaps, "gauntlet").

Meade said...

"dont you have some wholesome yard work to do on a saturday?"

It's pouring down rain here in Madison. I suppose I could screw up my courage, climb the ladder and clean cold Quest bars out of the gutters.

Pray for me?

buwaya said...

"Cozen" is underused. And very appropriate in politics.

Also "puissant". Not what it sounds like.

Bay Area Guy said...

Just checking -- Hillary is still not President, right?

Whew.

Meade said...

"gantlet" (and perhaps, "gauntlet").

I can top that. "Champing" at the bit or "chomping" at the bit? Turns out it's champing. But pronounced chomping.

tcrosse said...

" “Food!” we chorused."

From Act 1 of Oliver!

tcrosse said...

Also "puissant". Not what it sounds like.

"Niggardly" should be used with the greatest care.

YoungHegelian said...

Canned Salmon

'Cause there's nothing I'd want more than to spend my time in an airplane cabin redolent** of aging salmon. I mean, a couple of drops of salmon "juice" on a seat & it'll stink for the next two weeks.

** "Redolent". That's right, I said it. "Redolent". Whatcha you gonna do about it, motherfucker?

veni vidi vici said...

"Muster" is one of those bullshit folksy-isms that Hillary probably thinks sounds folksy. Maybe she wrote the first 100 pages and someone else wrote the rest. Or maybe one of her gifted 20 year old speechwriters wrote the first 100 to draw in readers with the illusion of semi-competent written expression, and then she took over and turned it into a byzantine slog.

Who knows: cares?

tcrosse said...

"Redolent". That's right, I said it. "Redolent". Whatcha you gonna do about it, motherfucker?

How succulent.

DavidD said...

" 'By the end, he [Obama] led in the all-important delegate count....' "

She knew it was all-important yet chose in 2016 not to campaign in how many states?

And all her supporters could say was that she'd won the popular vote.

tastid212 said...

"Muster" is also used by volunteer fire departments. HRC has certainly watched Team Clinton put out an unusual amount of fires and "eruptions" over the past 30+ years.

Be interesting to know who the ghostwriters were. They do get paid well, and have to sign NDAs, too.

Big Mike said...

I'm here at Winchester Oktoberfest, and I can't find the mustard. I'll bet brats in Wisconsin are tastier than these sorry, greasy things in their inedible buns. Good pretzels, but that's it.

Oh! You meant "mustered." Never mind, then.

DavidD said...

Yes, but where can one find brats served in brötchen?

You won't believe how disappointed I was to go to my first post-Germany Oktoberfest in New Braunfels, Texas, only to get bratwurst on a stick with a DINNER ROLL shoved up the other end.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Dickin'Bimbos@Home said...
Hillary might be a professor at Leftwinger U.
What will she teach? How to be a crook?

10/14/17, 12:26 PM

Why doesn't she teach at West Point instead? She could demonstrate how to dodge sniper fire.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

YoungHegelian said 'Cause there's nothing I'd want more than to spend my time in an airplane cabin redolent** of aging salmon. I mean, a couple of drops of salmon "juice" on a seat & it'll stink for the next two weeks."

This is just setting up the tee for Laslo.

Aging salmon and candy bars warmed by Hillary's ass.

Those traveling with the Kerry campaign fared better:

"After tossing out their cheeseburgers and chili, Kerry and Edwards feasted on shrimp vindallo, grilled diver sea scallops, prosciutto, wrapped stuffed chicken and steak salad."

Jim at said...

I simply cannot fathom - no matter what side of the political aisles you're on - why anybody in his or her right mind would even consider reading this book.

I just can't.

Michael K said...

When Kerry and McCain flew to North Vietnam to make kissy face with the Viet Minh, they ate the pizza that was supposed to be the air crews' meal.

Kissing up to enemies makes one hungry.

Michael K said...

Do any of these people write their own books anymore?

No, next question,

David said...

Muster is actually a pretty good word for her appearance at the Inaugural. A muster in military terms is a gathering of the troops upon command, often used to gauge the strength of the force upon call up or after action. In skilled hands, with a bow to the military connotation, it could have been effective. But Hillary Clinton does not bow to anything military, and her hands are not skilled enough to create the needed subtleties.

David said...

"Pray for me?"

If you stay off the ladder I will.

tcrosse said...

Do any of these people write their own books anymore?

Imagine, if you dare, how much more awful this book would be if Hillary had actually written it in H>er Own Words, mouse turds and all.

Original Mike said...

"Hillary might be a professor at Leftwinger U."

I bet she skips out on the mandatory ethics training.

D 2 said...

The post brings to mind the Gleickgate memos episode, and how text analysis by a guy - in real time, online, I think? - identfied the memos were fake by looking at the word/phrase structure. Was "fake news" a term back then? I dont recall much pursuit of a story, after the memos were exposed within days.

(I dont really want to google, cause I'm somewhat worried that - with time - the story has been re-worked re: what was done was now a "noble" act rather than a set-up. I seem to recall no punishment of the act.)

Unknown said...

A faux British use I identify with the word is from Nigel at the end of “This Is Spinal Tap:”

Nigel: ‘“No! We’re all out, do you wear black?”, see, that sort of thing, I think I could probably muster up.’

After Nigel, I can only use the word ironically. Read as esoterically ironic, the book’s uses of ’muster’ fit perfectly.

Mountain Maven said...

Drunkblogging much?

tcrosse said...

"Hillary might be a professor at Leftwinger U."

Imagine her sitting in judgement on campus sexual misbehavior cases.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

You must muster the courage to garner the glory.

Unknown said...

You mean Hillary didn't write her own book?

The next thing you'll be saying is that JFK didn't write Profiles in Courage.

AllenS said...

Play close attention to all of Hillary's interviews. Does anyone think that she could write anything that made any sense? Not me.

Narayanan said...

How incompetent of Hilary to get a 737 without a galley.

Known Unknown said...

"How incompetent of Hilary to get a 737 without a galley."

My thoughts as well. What kind of shit plane did she fly that can't heat up a granola bar?

Bay Area Guy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bay Area Guy said...

On the one hand, I wish Hillary would shut up and just fade away, kinda like other noted Presidential loser, Michael Dukakis.

On the other hand, since the quest for power burns bright in that one, it would be epic if she were to run again, get her ass whipped by Trump in 2020, and wreck the Democrat party in the process.

Hmm. What to do?

Ctmom4 said...

Jalapeños on pizza? I knew she was a monster.

tim in vermont said...

Jalapeños on pizza? I knew she was a monster.

The old lush's taste buds probably don't work anymore.

She could have used "marshal," that's the word we used for getting all of the data filled and lined up to go when talking about data communication, but I am sure she could have found it in a thesaurus, had she any sense of the language.

Rusty said...


"I tend to get law books sent to me."

Must be great if you can't sleep.

We won't hold it against Meade if he doesn't wade through the whole book. I pity the editors who had to proof read it.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Me:
"Hillary might be a professor at Leftwinger U."

TcRosse:
"Imagine her sitting in judgement on campus sexual misbehavior cases. "

At least it's leftwinger on leftwinger action.

Skyler said...

Ann, your idiosyncratic distaste for “muster” is fine for your writing. It’s absurd to check new names others for using a perfectly normal word. It wasn’t misused or over used. Your complaint is silly.

Biotrekker said...

Did Hillary also make "ass burgers" by stuffing them in her pants a la Cartman?