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Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 20
stranger
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OP
stranger
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 20 |
Can i say "Hearsay hangs in the air?"
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
well, you could; but you'd probably be the first person in all the known universe to do so. (I'm saying it this way in the hopes that we'll get some context for one of these odd questions.)
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Hearsay refers to allegations picked up from gossip. The buzz,buzz of busy gossipers hangs in
the air of a crowded meeting. But 'hearsay" is an abstraction, and has the implication that
whoever reports it may well distort it. That's why it is inadmissible in legal proceedings.
Again, suededevil, I enjoy your questions, and hope you will ask lots of them.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
I think it's a very nice metaphor. I would take it to mean that there are a lot of opinions about, all loosely based on fact. A lot of people are talking about something without really knowing what they're talking about. There are overtones of ominousness in it.
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
I like the phrase, I must say, sue
but There are overtones of ominousness in it.
reminds me that, in C17 Britain, thieves and murderers used to hang in the air - sometimes from a week or two, as an example to others!
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Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 555
addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 555 |
And the Bulwer-Lytton goes to:
There was the palpable crackle of tension in the stadium and cries of shame rent the air, as the wretched prisoners were dragged into the arena, in front of an audience too busy with the macabre revelries to notice the thick, low slung cloud of hearsay ominously hanging over their drooping heads.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661 |
...in C17 Britain, thieves and murderers used to hang in the air - sometimes from a week or two, as an example to others!
At least they were theives and murderers. It reminds me of a song Billie Holliday sung from back in '38 titled "Strange Fruit".
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Abel Meeropol, a white Jewish teacher in a New York City high school, wrote the lyrics and music of "Strange Fruit," and shared the piece with Billie Holiday in 1939 when she was singing at Cafe Society, the leading left-wing, integrated night club in Greenwich Village. Meeropol was a political activist, a member of the Communist Party, and after the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenburg raised their orphaned children. "Strange Fruit" soon became the opening song for Holiday's sets and a popular success when she recorded it. The searing lyrics often upset club patrons and it became a weapon in continuing anti-lynching campaigns. Meeropol must have been surprised, but pleased at the song's impact. In an interview in 1971 he commented: "I wrote 'Strange Fruit' because I hate lynching, and I hate injustice, and I hate the people who perpetuate it." http://womhist.binghamton.edu/aswpl/doc1.htm
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