Comments on: The Other Cheek

By: Christine

Christine — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:23:35 +0000

I’m with Autumnal Harvest. I’ve heard this one interpreted also as it changes the slap from being front of the hand to back of the hand, which is more of a caress.

Just like carrying the pack of a Roman soldier for two miles instead of one could get said soldier in a lot of trouble (they had limits on how much work they could make the locals do).

By: paperboy

paperboy — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:08:43 +0000

My point eggs-freakin’-aktly.

By: S.P. Charles

S.P. Charles — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:10:37 +0000

I thought the very point of the Janet Jackson business was that it was the opposite of a cover-up.

By: paperboy

paperboy — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:55:17 +0000

And I stand by my lexicon proclamation. There HAS to be a cover-up and denial to be dubbed with the “gate” suffix. Look up the Watergate Hotel scandal. Otherwise use the terms “affair”, “scandal”, “trouble” , “Brew-ha-ha”, “fuss”, “ado” etc.

By: mkilby

mkilby — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:42:05 +0000

I stand by “nipplegate” - The fun thing about watching the aftermath on German TV was that they actually ran the tape, and it wasn’t censored either. There was no “cover up” after the fact, but there certainly WAS a coverup when it happened, and boy was it FAST. However, the most depressing thing about the whole episode was reading about the FCC’s justification of a half-million dollar fine for this “oh-so-heinous crime” of displaying a tit on TV.

By: paperboy

paperboy — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:50:34 +0000

mkilby , Elyrest - The Janet Jackson incident cannot be tagged with the “gate” suffix, because that requires there to be a “cover-up”.

By: Elyrest

Elyrest — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:37:25 +0000

“the uproar over Janet Jackson’s nipplegate was met here with tired disbelief of the silly American prudes”

mkilby - it was met that way here too.

By: mkilby

mkilby — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:31:19 +0000

@ Furrykef - I’ve used and heard the phrase on occasions, but only in the US. Here in Germany, the word Nazi is so overloaded with emotion that it is simply off the scale as an intensifier (even when speaking in English). It could even result in a libel lawsuit (for public utterances, especially when gets into the media).
There’s an odd irony to this, when you compare it to the “F-word” that is so feared by American Censorship Nazis: it doesn’t happen often, but nobody in Germany gets hot and bothered when a comedian says F**K! on television, and the uproar over Janet Jackson’s nipplegate was met here with tired disbelief of the silly American prudes.

By: furrykef

furrykef — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:54:30 +0000

I, for one, feel there is nothing hyperbolic about equating linguistic pedantry with a political party which made the slaughter of millions of human beings a matter of institutional policy.

It is a quite reasonable comparison.

Nobody ever said that it isn’t hyperbolic. But “X nazi” (where X is anything, but especially “spelling” or “grammar”) is pretty standard terminology these days, especially on the internet.

- Kef

By: Autumnal Harvest

Autumnal Harvest — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:15:52 +0000

This is actually a perfectly valid theological reading of the gospels. Arguably, the point of turning the other cheek isn’t to let horrible people do whatever they want, but to set an example that shames and changes the horrible people and the world. I don’t claim that this is what the historical Jesus meant, but many people do claim that’s what he meant. Which is why this comic isn’t particularly funny.