An unintended misspelling often provides some gentle amusement. This one from the FastForward blog made me laugh out loud with visions of farmers tossing city folk to their deaths due to their lack of knowledge about where food comes from.

This film is about the death throws of farming in England and about the barrier between city folk who think that food comes from the supermarket and the country folk who struggle to produce food for a living when the supermarkets and the government do all they can to break them. — Social Media – A New POV for Story Telling.

Rob Paterson writes about how simply-made video can be more engaging than professionally produced interviews.

throes : violent pangs of suffering

Hairy and Curious Bull, Image by D’Arcy Norman Some rights reserved

Snail brings this strange job advertisement to my attention. Someone wants to hire an execution consultant to manage recruitment processes. Now imagine you are at a dinner party.

“And what do you do for a living?”…

“I’m an execution consultant”

.. that has to be worse than “I’m a bank manager”

Execution: the act of putting someone to death by law, or, the act of doing some process

Executive: someone with the power to direct or manage, or, pertaining to a business organisation or management

Image by fensterbme Some rights reserved.

Person Jeff shocked

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Heard on the National Nine news tonight… “the Easter from hell”. This is how the surf lifesavers’ weekend on the Gold Coast, Queensland has been described in response to two drownings over the long weekend. Leave aside that the Christians hijacked the pagan seasonal celebration of the goddess Eostre.

Hell – Easter, interesting juxtaposition.

Reminder for all who visit the Gold Coast beaches – don’t spoil your holiday by drowning – swim between the flags and don’t swim under the influence of drugs, legal or otherwise.

I’ve seen a number of job advertisements recently where the employers refer to successful incumbents being desirable.

 ”… the most successful incumbent will also be responsible for the safety and overall well being of all …”

How about the least successful incumbent? What will they be responsible for? Maybe they should get some professional development (training) or be sacked.

I’m sure most employers want to have successful incumbents working for them, but if they are incumbent, then WHY are they trying to recruit them. The incumbent is already working for them!!!

Incumbent: The individual who is currently employed in a position

Candidate: Person to potentially fill a job opening

In almost all job ads where I’ve seen this phrase, the word candidate would be much more appropriate than incumbent.

Job Wanted, Image by  Sidewalk_story. Reproduced under a Creative Commons Licence.
Some rights reserved.

A mixed idiom for the first post. Luke Turgeon in the Gold Coast Bulletin (15-16Mar 2008, Weekend Bulletin, p170), perhaps carried away by the excitement of the night, tells us that prior to the Titans v Cowboys game last night, the captain, “Bailey laid down the gauntlet to his troops”. It sounds like the team had a very gentle ‘talking to’, although Turgeon reports that the captain called for “more aggression and toughness”.

Lay down the law - to assert positively and unequivocally

Throw down the gauntlet – to invite someone to argue, fight, or compete with you

Run the gauntlet – to have to deal with a lot of people who are criticizing or attacking you, or, to have to move by a line or group of people vying for your attention.

I’m guessing Bailey wanted the team to “take up the gauntlet” (the challenge) and thought that laying down the law would be the best way to encourage that.  It worked. Congratulations to the Titans, a team at the start of its second season, for defeating the Cowboys at the brand new Skilled Stadium.

Elizabethan Gauntlet, Image by Crowolf reproduced under a Creative Commons Licence. 
Some rights reserved.