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Richard R. Hershberger
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 9:02 pm
Post subject: Re: Cherry picking (Was: Re: flaunt/flout redux) |
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hayesmstw@hotmail.com (Steve Hayes) wrote in message news:<418efdf7.259456640@news.saix.net>...
| Quote: | What is "cherry picking"?
A "cherry picker" to me is one of those lorries with a platform for people
working on overhead electricity supplies.
Perhaps similar things are usied for picking edible cherries.
I believe in AmE "cherry" is part of the female pudendum.
In SAfE "cherry" is part of the male pudendum.
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These points are all true, but a blind alley so far as your question
goes. (Not that this has stopped others from running merrily down
it...) "Cherry picking" is unrelated to elevated platforms and has
nothing sexual about it. It is the practice of selectively choosing
the best items, i.e. the cherries rather than the less desirable
stuff.
For example, suppose you and I were salemen sharing a territory, but
not the sales leads within that territory. But we don't divide the
leads up randomly, since I was a drinking buddy of the boss and he let
me chose which leads I wanted. Were I to then choose the best leads,
leaving you the garbage, you could then accuse me of cherry-picking.
Not that it would do you any good, since our boss would tell you to
stop whining and suck it up...
Another example: Suppose I have a brilliant new educational theory
that I claim is much superior to current practice. I get my grant
money to set up a pilot program. I go to a conventional school to get
students for my program. But I am not so foolish as to take students
at random. I carefully select the best and the brightest for my
program. This results in my program having spectacular results,
becoming the Next Big Thing in the ed biz. I make a boatload of money
off of books and the lecture circuit, with the happy result that I
don't ever have to step into a real classroom again. Of course when
my brilliant theory is applied to the real world it won't work. But
when people accuse me of having cherry-picked for my study, I accuse
them of not implementing my brilliant theory properly. And a good
time is had by all.
Both of these examples are hypothetical, but pretty much how the world
actually works.
Richard R. Hershberger
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Peter T. Daniels
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 9:02 pm
Post subject: Re: Cherry picking (Was: Re: flaunt/flout redux) |
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CyberCypher wrote:
| Quote: |
Peter T. Daniels wrote on 08 Nov 2004:
Steve Hayes wrote:
In SAfE "cherry" is part of the male pudendum.
Yeah? Which part?
I'd bet that it refers to that cute little bald-headed mouse I used
hear about in dirty junior high school jokes. IOW, the glans penis.
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I'd prefer a datum to a guess.
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@att.net |
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CyberCypher
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 9:17 pm
Post subject: Re: Cherry picking (Was: Re: flaunt/flout redux) |
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Peter T. Daniels wrote on 08 Nov 2004:
| Quote: | CyberCypher wrote:
Peter T. Daniels wrote on 08 Nov 2004:
Steve Hayes wrote:
In SAfE "cherry" is part of the male pudendum.
Yeah? Which part?
I'd bet that it refers to that cute little bald-headed mouse I used
hear about in dirty junior high school jokes. IOW, the glans penis.
I'd prefer a datum to a guess.
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Consider it a datum, Peter.
--
Franke: EFL teacher & medical editor
For email, replace numbers with English alphabet.
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Jim Ward
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 9:30 pm
Post subject: Re: Cherry picking (Was: Re: flaunt/flout redux) |
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On Mon, 8 Nov 2004 02:08:59 -0600, "Raymond S. Wise"
<mplsrayNOSPAM@gbronline.com> wrote:
[quote]From MWCD11
| Quote: |
Main Entry: *cher·ry-pick* Pronunciation Guide
[...]
Function: verb
Date: 1965
_intransitive verb_ *:* to select the best or most desirable
_transitive verb_ *:* to select as being the best or most desirable; _also_
*:* to select the best or most desirable from <_cherry-picked_ the art
collection
[end quote]
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Yabbut, what are you picking the cherries out of? A bowl of cherries?
A bowl of mixed fruit? |
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Jim Ward
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 9:32 pm
Post subject: Re: Cherry picking (Was: Re: flaunt/flout redux) |
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On Mon, 08 Nov 2004 13:03:16 GMT, arnow@iname.com (Murray Arnow)
wrote:
| Quote: | In my youth, the phrase "bust her cherry" meant rupturing the hymen.
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I heard "pop her cherry". Sort of like "pop goes the weasel", without
the weasel, and a cherry added. |
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Jim Ward
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 9:52 pm
Post subject: Re: Cherry picking (Was: Re: flaunt/flout redux) |
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While we're on the topic of sex, I was reading that before the act the
female praying mantis bites off the head of her paramour (presumably
the lack of conversation improves the sex). That's a behavior awaiting
a clever turn of phrase. |
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Harlan Messinger
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 9:57 pm
Post subject: Re: flaunt/flout redux |
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"Wood Avens" <woodavens@askjennison.com> wrote in message
news:e3eqo01u7tutni9qtgrvqvuidea4n33tdp@4ax.com...
| Quote: |
It's never used the other way round (flout mistakenly used for
flaunt), though, is it? If it is, I've never come across it. I'm
wondering why not.
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I had the good fortune of learning the word "flout" from the caution about
not confusing it with "flaunt", so I've never made this mistake. In fact, at
the time I think I knew the word "flaunt" only because some company was
using the slogan, "If you've got it, flaunt it."
Maybe that's the answer to slowing down semantic shift: actively teach kids
early the words that tend to be confused, before they've had a chance to
mislearn those words elsewhere. Come to think of it, that's right up there
in the good sense department as teaching kids the facts about sex early
before they hear the distortions from their friends. |
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Harlan Messinger
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 9:58 pm
Post subject: Re: flaunt/flout redux |
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"Harlan Messinger" <h.messinger@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:2v9fq2F2hgaerU1@uni-berlin.de...
| Quote: |
"Wood Avens" <woodavens@askjennison.com> wrote in message
news:e3eqo01u7tutni9qtgrvqvuidea4n33tdp@4ax.com...
It's never used the other way round (flout mistakenly used for
flaunt), though, is it? If it is, I've never come across it. I'm
wondering why not.
I had the good fortune of learning the word "flout" from the caution about
not confusing it with "flaunt", so I've never made this mistake. In fact,
at
the time I think I knew the word "flaunt" only because some company was
using the slogan, "If you've got it, flaunt it."
Maybe that's the answer to slowing down semantic shift: actively teach
kids
early the words that tend to be confused, before they've had a chance to
mislearn those words elsewhere. Come to think of it, that's right up there
in the good sense department as teaching kids the facts about sex early
before they hear the distortions from their friends.
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Goodness--sex education is the model for lex education. |
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Peter T. Daniels
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 10:15 pm
Post subject: Re: Cherry picking (Was: Re: flaunt/flout redux) |
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CyberCypher wrote:
| Quote: |
Peter T. Daniels wrote on 08 Nov 2004:
CyberCypher wrote:
Peter T. Daniels wrote on 08 Nov 2004:
Steve Hayes wrote:
In SAfE "cherry" is part of the male pudendum.
Yeah? Which part?
I'd bet that it refers to that cute little bald-headed mouse I used
hear about in dirty junior high school jokes. IOW, the glans penis.
I'd prefer a datum to a guess.
Consider it a datum, Peter.
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It was preceded by "I'd bet that." It's a datum about you, not about a
word.
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@att.net |
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CyberCypher
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 10:34 pm
Post subject: Re: Cherry picking (Was: Re: flaunt/flout redux) |
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Peter T. Daniels wrote on 08 Nov 2004:
| Quote: | CyberCypher wrote:
Peter T. Daniels wrote on 08 Nov 2004:
CyberCypher wrote:
Peter T. Daniels wrote on 08 Nov 2004:
Steve Hayes wrote:
In SAfE "cherry" is part of the male pudendum.
Yeah? Which part?
I'd bet that it refers to that cute little bald-headed mouse I
used hear about in dirty junior high school jokes. IOW, the
glans penis.
I'd prefer a datum to a guess.
Consider it a datum, Peter.
It was preceded by "I'd bet that." It's a datum about you, not
about a word.
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If I had it wrong, Steve Hayes would be only to glad to set me straight
about it, and he hasn't. Of course, he has been ignoring me these past
two days, but that's only because he's unhappy about what I said about
his unwarranted remarks about how Americans seem not to answer the
question asked.
Anyway, you can look up "cherry" and "glans penis" and then follow the
trail it suggests to "involucre" and see that my "guess" was as much a
datum as you will come across in answer to this question.
--
Franke: EFL teacher & medical editor
For email, replace numbers with English alphabet. |
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Jordan Abel
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 11:34 pm
Post subject: Re: flaunt/flout redux |
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Raymond S. Wise wrote:
| Quote: | I'm surprised at your response. It makes no sense unless you believe
"synonym" to mean "exact synonym."
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Even inexact synonymity is symmetric (if A is a synonym of B, then B is a
synonym of A) |
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Jordan Abel
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 11:40 pm
Post subject: Re: Cherry picking (Was: Re: flaunt/flout redux) |
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Raymond S. Wise wrote:
[snip MWCD11-says-this/MWCD11-says-that]
Didn't we already determine MWCD11 was invalid [or, at least, too overly
eager to follow bad usage even before such usage is established] back when
someone discovered it legitimized "nucular"? |
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Peter T. Daniels
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 11:47 pm
Post subject: Re: Cherry picking (Was: Re: flaunt/flout redux) |
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Jordan Abel wrote:
| Quote: |
Raymond S. Wise wrote:
[snip MWCD11-says-this/MWCD11-says-that]
Didn't we already determine MWCD11 was invalid [or, at least, too overly
eager to follow bad usage even before such usage is established] back when
someone discovered it legitimized "nucular"?
|
Dictionaries are not in the "legitimizing" business.
They report facts.
If more people say "nucular" than noo-clee-ar, the dictionary had better
recognize that fact.
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@att.net |
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Neeraj Mathur
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2004 1:18 am
Post subject: Re: Cherry picking (Was: Re: flaunt/flout redux) |
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"Jacques Guy" <jguy@alphalink.com.au> wrote in message
news:419020C8.5A01@alphalink.com.au...
| Quote: | It means virginity, that's all. In a pinch, you could
imagine that cherry = hymen, but show me a cherry
that looks like a hymen or a hymen that looks like
a cherry.
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I think it's best explained in a slightly different way. I would guess (just
a guess, no data) that the original usage was something like that still in
the phrase 'pop the cherry': perform an action that tears the hymen and then
compare the blood that streams to the juice of a cherry that has been
squeezed until it bursts. From this, the metaphor was extended backward to
equate hymen and cherry, or virginity and cherry. The shape has nothing to
do with it.
Does that sound plausible?
Neeraj |
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Jordan Abel
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2004 1:46 am
Post subject: Re: Cherry picking (Was: Re: flaunt/flout redux) |
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Peter T. Daniels wrote:
| Quote: | No, since I've seen lots and lots of porn boxes and spam ads urging me
to watch "barely legal" "backdoor virgins" lose their "anal cherry."
|
That it must be specified acts as evidence _against_ it being the default
case, not _for_. |
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