I'm actually kind of surprised....

Jan 16, 2009 22:23

I've been reading about the US Airways plane that made a water landing, and as I've been doing so I've been looking for a very specific word ( Read more... )

language, news

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Comments 12

jokergirl January 16 2009, 13:47:20 UTC
Oh hell yes.
Luck? Really huge bloody luck that the one pilot that used to fly glider freight planes was the one to loose both turbines (a very unlikely scenario)? Yes.
Miracle? Were I the pilot, I would see that as an insult. My hat is off to the man.

;)

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jt93 January 16 2009, 14:05:38 UTC
that pilot is one bad ass dude. i was looking at his resume yesterday. blue force leader @ red flag, safety consultant for nasa, led the redesign of airport signage, bad ass dude!

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mshades January 16 2009, 14:10:17 UTC
No kidding. Just the kind of guy I want flying me around....

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chazari January 16 2009, 14:07:57 UTC
If previously drowned monkeys rose from the dead and lifted the plane carrying it to shore, that would have been a miracle.

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mshades January 16 2009, 14:09:31 UTC
Absolutely. There is nothing a pack of waterlogged zombie monkeys cannot do.

Nothing.

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mshades January 16 2009, 23:41:46 UTC
I think there's a point there, but this is just one of a few words where I just get rigidly proscriptive. "Miracle" describes something so specific and special that its meaning gets diluted when you apply it to everything that is amazing. We have words like, well, "amazing" already which do a fine job. Leave "miracle" alone to do its job - describing events that are truly beyond our understanding.

As an aside, I want to start using "miracle" to describe horrible events as well. Look at the Bible - just because it's a miracle doesn't mean it's good....

"Unique" is another one get gets under my fingernails. It doesn't mean "special" or "interesting." We already have "special" and "interesting" and they do their jobs very well. Don't dilute the meaning of a very specific word like that....

I know the modern way is to be all descriptive and hippie and says, "Yeah, man, words mean whatever we want them to mean," but I'm a cranky old man at heart sometimes. *smile*

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mshades January 16 2009, 23:42:38 UTC
I think I beat you in crankiness. I always tell myself not to do comments before that first cup of coffee, but I never manage to hold to it....

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