|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
I disagree. there is nothing amusing or entertaining about not having enough to go around. a delicious conundrum only works (for me) if the choioces are all good, and I can't decide which good thing to take.
formerly known as etaoin...
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
That ain't the point. It is a delicious conundrum simply because of its complexity and the great ethics questions involved therewith. Do we dose the health care providers first, even if doing so means there are no patients for them to provide health care to? If you have a cholice between giving the elderly or giving the young first access to the immunizations, which one comes first? The elderly are ll gonna die anyway, while the younger and healthier ones may have a greater chance of survival on their own. Do we give the first shot at the drugs to the military so they can be there to protect the survivors from themselves when anarchy reigns?
The speaker chose those words correctly, though perhaps not in PC terms since the phrase is not well-known.
It's actually more a technical term when you get right down to it.
If you google the phrase in quotes you will find a bunch of citations almost all along this line.
TEd
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
I'm still with eta on this one. Whatever secondary meanings "delicious" might have they will be overshadowed by the normal meaning, particularly in this context.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
> secondary meaning of intensely amusing or entertaining, which is obviously what the author intended
> complexity and the great ethics questions
I still don't see how that is amusing or entertaining.
formerly known as etaoin...
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
look at it from the backside: those are very perplexing conundrums that TEd has posited, and someone who thus takes amusement from them [how droll!] might consider them "delicious".
-joe (what, me worry?!) friday
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 2
stranger
|
|
OP
stranger
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 2 |
I want to thank everyone who answered. I still don't know the origin of the phrase, but I haven't tried wordorigins.com yet.
I understand Ted's point of view but I do not think it can possibly be appropriate to use the word delicious in the context of choosing who lives or dies, regardless of the technical accuracy or historical precedence that disassociates the adjective delicious from the nature of the conundrum. What percentage of the population could possibly grasp this subtlety?
The secretary of HHS should have more sensitivity to the level of education and erudition of his audience, myself included apparently.
Now if G.W. Bush had been in the audience, I imagine that he would have chastised Leavitt for talking about flavored prophylactics in public.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
formerly known as etaoin...
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
One last attempt: see also delicious irony.
TEd
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
well, seems as if we're getting into schadenfreude...
formerly known as etaoin...
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Quote:
One last attempt: see also delicious irony.
Choose one:
A) Jeffery Dahmer dies by falling into a sausage making machine. It is not discovered until after the sausages are served up at a policemen's picnic.
2) Jimmy Carter dies choking on a peanut.
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,345
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
1 members (wofahulicodoc),
889
guests, and
1
robot. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
