Name dropping
Spotted this at TPM:
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin made headlines for suggesting in a TV interview she'd run for president in 2012 "if nobody else were to step up," but little noticed in that segment was the one-time vice presidential nominee dropping President Obama's middle name.Imagine my surprise when the quote was
Funny, Greta, we are learning more about Christine O'Donnell and her college years and her teenage years and her financial dealings than anybody ever even bothered to ask about Barack Hussein Obama as a candidate and now as our president.Wait. That's not dropping his middle name, that's using it.
Maybe it's just me, but "dropping the president's name" isn't the same as "dropping the president's middle name". One's using it to imply friendship and the other is not using it. I've "dropped his middle name" if I say "Oliver Holmes". Or maybe if I call Billy Ray Cyrus just plain "Ray".
But calling Kennedy "John Fitzgerald Kennedy" wasn't "dropping his middle name", and neither is this, telling as it is.
4 Comments:
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At 5:31 PM, September 24, 2010
Barry Leiba had this to say...
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At 8:20 PM, September 24, 2010
The Ridger, FCD had this to say...
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At 10:43 AM, September 25, 2010
Barry Leiba had this to say...
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At 12:37 AM, September 29, 2010
Anonymous had this to say...
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<-- Older Post ^ Home Newer Post -->Hm....
I'm not sure I agree. "Name dropping" is using someone's name casually in conversation, usually for the purpose of impressing people. "I was talking to Barak the other day, and...."
This clearly isn't quite that, but it's not unrelated. I would definitely not say that she "dropped the president's name", because she didn't: she was specifically talking about the president, and that's not name dropping.
But she did casually insert his middle name, where most people wouldn't, for the purpose of giving a certain impression.
I think that comes pretty close to saying that she engaged in name-dropping with the president's middle name. As that phrase is awkward, the way TPM said it seems acceptable to me. I think.
I'm willing to be convinced otherwise, though.
I don't know: For me the only impression "name dropping" is trying to make is to shine reflected glory on the name-dropper, implying familiarity with or the support/backing of the person whose name is being dropped. Palin's motivation is entirely different, and for me that rules out the idiom.
Yeah, I get that, and I guess you're right. I could see some casual references like, "While I was executing Saddam the other day, ...," or "I was writing a brief for the case against George, and it occurred to me that...." But I do think you're right that the point is really to make people impressed with you, not to deride the person whose name you "dropped".
So, yeah, OK, we're agreed: inappropriate usage.
From the name-dropping segment in "How to Irritate People" by John Cleese:
Make these as big as possible. Try for example: "we dropped Liz and Phil off at Buck House […] and, uh, nipped over to Paul's place in Rome." Incidentally, if someone does this to you, simply wait for a suitable pause, and then clap enthusiastically. Follow this up, if necessary, with demands for autographs.
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