Posted on 06/20/2008 6:55:56 PM PDT by CapnJack
Spin control? Being swayed by?
Let's be clear here, I am not trying to sway you in anything. I could probably sway the Rock of Gibraltar easier, so I wouldn't waste my time.
Then why did you immediately backtrack on your original comment?
Give me a break my friend...NOT
I'm awaiting with baited breath your next pompous pronouncement!
My only standard is intellectual honesty. You might try it sometime.
I'm awaiting with baited breath your next pompous pronouncement!
Well then far be it from me to disappoint. Unless you just ate some worms or minnows, it's bated breath.
That surely is a joke! Maybe intellectual honesty from your narrow perspective, but I really even doubt that.
Try pompous ass as your standard that fits much better.
Well then far be it from me to disappoint. Unless you just ate some worms or minnows, it's bated breath.
From World Wide Words
[Q] From Steve Gearhart: “Where does the term baited breath come from, as in: ‘I am waiting with baited breath for your answer’?”
[A] The correct spelling is actually bated breath but it’s so common these days to see it written as baited breath that there’s every chance that it will soon become the usual form, to the disgust of conservative speakers and the confusion of dictionary writers. Examples in newspapers and magazines are legion; this one appeared in the Daily Mirror on 12 April 2003: “She hasn’t responded yet but Michael is waiting with baited breath”.
It’s easy to mock, but there’s a real problem here. Bated and baited sound the same and we no longer use bated (let alone the verb to bate), outside this one set phrase, which has become an idiom. Confusion is almost inevitable. Bated here is a contraction of abated through loss of the unstressed first vowel (a process called aphesis); it means “reduced, lessened, lowered in force”. So bated breath refers to a state in which you almost stop breathing as a result of some strong emotion, such as terror or awe.
Some might think that a self appointed checker of intellectual honesty might have known the above shifting standard
I'm anxiously awaiting with baited and/or bated breath your next childish pompous pronouncement
You're right - I'm probably being unfair. You very likely think you are being honest, but simply lack the mental horsepower to understand that what you wrote is very different from what you later claimed you meant.
If that's the case, fair enough. You may disregard my earlier comments about honesty.
Did you ever wander into an interestingly titled thread, see the discourse ongoing, and slowly (say that slowly as you read it) back up and close the door?
Hahaha! I’m just curious to see how long this exchange can go...
Wow, I thought this thread was long gone.
Talk about raising the dead.
If that's the case, fair enough. You may disregard my earlier comments about honesty.
I never claimed you were being unfair.
What you are being is a jerk and you lack the intellectual honesty to admit that about yourself.
As far as mental horsepower it would be a cold day in the hot place before I would ever feel that your horsepower exceeds mine or anyone else's' here.
One problem with being a pompous ass is that you frequently make an ass out of yourself like you have. I'll wait with baited/bated breath for you next mental giant epistle.
I don't really blame you.
Me too, actually I probably have more time than you to see how long you last.
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