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archives | newquaker.comWednesday, September 22, 2004
Peace train to nowhere. BBC News announced today in headlines:
US in shock over hostage deaths
America has woken up in shock to the news that both the US hostages being held by militants in Iraq have been killed by their captorsI don't know what this means. Who's in shock? At the college today no one was talking about the beheading of civilian American worker Jack Hensley, nor about his compatriot Eugene Armstrong, who was beheaded on Monday. No one mentioned it. I mean, it isn't as if people are hanging their heads, averting their eyes, and murmuring to themselves: literally no one is talking about it. And this is really gruesome business, but it's as if it didn't happen. We know that it did happen, but perhaps it's just another body count. After too many times, there's no surprise, no shock.
What I did hear today were frequent, casual, incredulous references to the bizarre detention of British singer Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), who will be sent back to London after being refused entry into the US as a national security threat. He was on a United Airlines flight, heading towards Washington Dulles International Airport, when US officials suddenly had the plane diverted to Bangor, Maine. Islam was taken off the plane, interviewed by the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and then held in custody as a danger to the US. According to Homeland Security, he "was placed on watch lists because of concerns that the US has about activities that can potentially be related to terrorism." Can this get any crazier?
posted by Merle Harton, Jr. 4:42 PM
Sunday, September 19, 2004
When I'm on NPR. I was listening to NPR today and I finally got the response I was looking for, and I'm going to use it. What am I talking about? I have this fear that one day I'm going to be listening to an interview on NPR and the interchange is going to go something like this:
Thank you [name] for coming on our program today...
Well, thank you for having me on your program today...
Oh, thank YOU for coming on our program today...
No, thank YOU for having me on your program today...—And so it continues until someone blinks, er, finally says "you're welcome." So there's an issue of etiquette in the proper way to accept a gracious offer and I don't want to be in any way connected with an interchange of this sort, or at least I don't want to be known as the person who actually did this on NPR, so I've been struggling over the proper way to accept the guest spot on the program. Sometimes the host just moves right past the other "thank you" when their guest hastens to thank them for being asked to appear on the show—but, hey, it could happen.
I've been hearing a lot of "you're very welcome," which is a kind of welcome with a hint of thank-you in the inflection, but it just doesn't do the same work as the simple "you're welcome." The problem with "you're welcome" is that it's just too abrupt. There's a kind of haughty finality to it, as if the guest is really doing the host (and NPR) a favor by being there. And it doesn't matter if they really are doing them all a favor by showing up on national radio, but who wants to be seen as smug and self-absorbed like that. So some people just can't do the "you're welcome" and have to say the "thank YOU" instead. I heard a "it's been a pleasure" and that seemed to satisfy me, but it's just too effete for a man, at least in my opinion. Same thing for "I'm delighted," and the like. A woman could definitely get away with that, but it's not macho enough for me. Well, today I heard a US general speaking on NPR and at the end of the show, when he was thanked for being a guest, he just said "certainly." Now that's what I've been looking for: it does the same work as "you're welcome," but it has a cheerful finality to it, eliminating the need for any kind of thank-you.
When I'm on NPR, please listen for it.
posted by Merle Harton, Jr. 10:15 PM
© Merle Harton, Jr. All rights reserved. Biblical references are NIV® unless otherwise noted.
