Posted on 12/01/2007 8:07:22 AM PST by CounterCounterCulture
Your staff took me to task (Page 3B, Nov. 18) for misusing the word "climacteric" when I recently wrote, "I remain convinced that California is moving toward a climacteric in which an awakened electorate will soon call for a fundamental restructuring and downsizing of state government." "Climacteric," they snickered, means "menopause." If they would broaden their dictionary searches beyond Wikipedia, they would discover that the word is also defined as "constituting an important epoch or crisis" (Oxford English Dictionary). I suppose I could have written that "events are moving toward a climax," but I shudder to think what your staff would have made of that.
Sen. Tom McClintock
19th Senate District, Thousand Oaks
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
SJMN is truly pathetic.
I was lead to believe that newspapers were written on a 9th. grade reading level ... although the way public schools are now it should be on a 5th. grade reading level.
That's going to leave a mark.
Go, McClintock !!
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I suspect they used the Google "define" search -- define:climacteric. Almost all the results are menopause related. If you search on just the word, you get much broader results.
For your pinglist.
One can’t help but note that when Tom McClintock uses the word climacteric, which appears regularly in his speeches, he is discussing the very serious topic of fiscal malfeasance by California’s elected officials. Rather than address the noteworthy arguments raised by McClintock these smarmy scribes embrace a schoolyard mentality, engaging in word games. To borrow from a like-minded film, “Billy Madison;” “Everyone in this room is now dumber for having...” read your words “...may God have mercy on your soul.”
This is the relevant content excerpted from a regular opinion column in the San Jose Mercury News:
11/18/2007
“Capitol Beat”
“Compiled by Mike Zapler, Steven Harmon and Alvie Lindsay of the MediaNews Sacramento Bureau.”
“...Better look it up”
“Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks, is known for his fiscal conservatism and his cerebral stemwinders.
“But in a recent fundraising letter to supporters for his 2010 Board of Equalization campaign, McClintock might have overreached with his use of a certain recondite (which is fancy-schmancy for obscure) word.
“I remain convinced,” he writes, “that California is moving toward a climacteric in which an awakened electorate will soon call for a fundamental restructuring . . .”
“Climacteric? He must think our checkbook is next to our dictionary.
“Speaking of which, the first definition of the word in Webster’s New World Dictionary is: “A period in the life of a person when an important physiological change occurs; specif., the period of menopause.”
“In Dorland’s Medical Dictionary for Health Consumers, female menopause is the first definition; the second is: similar changes occurring in men owing to normal diminution of sexual drives with the aging process.
“OK. So, maybe McClintock is going for the elderly vote.
“Wait. Further research indicates that McClintock must be using Princeton’s online dictionary, which traces the word back to Ancient Greek philosophers and astrologers - used by such luminaries as Plato and Cicero - who saw it as “certain critical years in a person’s life, marking turning points.”
“A bit obscure, but then again, what’s one to expect from a politician who’s 17th paragraph begins: “Which brings me to the point of this letter.”
“We jest, of course. We are after all talking about a man whose legislative peers consistently regard him as one its brightest minds. And definitely smart enough to be direct when he does get to the point:
“I need to raise $500,000 before March 2008 to be on track to have the finances necessary to run a winning campaign.”
“Nothing recondite about that...”
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