Quote:
Originally posted by PornoDoggy@Nov 7 2003, 09:52 AM
I agree with [Labret] (evne though he always remind me of a great line that the ventriloquist William Safire caused the puppet Spiro Agnew to utter - "nattering nabobs of negativism") -
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I had to run to google to figure out what that even meant.
Quote:
In a speech in San Diego in 1970, then Vice President Spiro Agnew used the phrase "nattering nabobs of negativism" to describe supposed intellectuals who attacked American policy. "Natter" is defined as "to nag, to find fault peevishly," and a "nabob" is "a native provincial deputy or governor of the old Mogul empire in India; a native district ruler in India" or "European who has become rich in India" or "a very rich man" (Websters New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, Deluxe Second Edition). Agnew's speech writers undoubtedly put the terms together because of their alliterative value, but the phrase does paint an interesting although unpleasant word picture of a self-important person nagging and criticizing everyone else.
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Last edited by [Labret] at Nov 7 2003, 02:52 PM