Wednesday, April 6, 2011

E is for Euphemism

Often when colleagues gather together, brainstorming on some project or another, someone will ask, Do you know Mr. E? He might be able to help.

Everyone in the room suddenly looks stricken. Someone says, Oh, he's a Really Gifted Designer.  And heads nod all around, but noone adds anything.

Down South, where I'm from, if someone says of a woman, Oh, she has a really pretty face. 90% of the time it's a dead giveaway that she's fat. Not just chubby, either. Clinically obese.

Really Gifted Designer, with no following phrase, tells us with similar relative certainty that the person in question creates wonderful spaces, but behaves like Howard Roark. We give the stroke as a way of putting the best face on it. We're left with the question lingering in the back of our minds, if artistic gifts must always combine with that abrasive personality.


1 comment:

  1. there's also the summation "bless his/her heart" which signals the audience that despite the virtues listed, the subject is more to be pitied than envied.

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