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stranger
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stranger
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A couple days ago U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt used the term "delicious conundrum" in what would seem to be the most inappropriate context. Here is the quote from the ABC News article (http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=2045194&page=2) where I saw it:
With local authorities in charge of the all-important distribution of medicines, how to prioritize who gets vaccine and treatment first? Who should go to the front of the line: the elderly, the sickest, the young, health-care workers or the military?
"This is a delicious conundrum," Leavitt said, acknowledging it was a "hard problem." He pointed out that any pandemic was likely to last about a year or a year and a half before it petered out. The country needs to be prepared to handle other disasters during that time too, Leavitt said.
I was not familiar with the term delicious conundrum and I about fell off my chair when I saw how it was used in the article. Apparently, as I found out by doing a Google search, Leavitt did not coin this term. I imagine its origin is some well-known work of literature. Does anyone know if this is true and if so, where it was first used?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2001
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Welcome, Frenchie. I can't answer your questions, but I agree that this is poor usage in this context.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
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Wow it gets a lot of google hits for being such a weird phrase. Seems like it usually is used to mean a choice between two desirable but mutually exclusive options. ("New Yorker Nicole Krauss's second novel is ambitious on many levels, especially those of plot and character. It excels in all, presenting that delicious conundrum of whether to read quickly to devour the goodness or to read slowly to make the experience last longer.") Another source seems to use it to mean an odd or ironic situation: Larry Neal's hipster love lyric "Poppa Stoppa Speaks From His Grave" exemplifies the other pole of controversy. The poem begins, "Remember me baby in my best light, / lovely hip style and an." The concluding lines, however, include some very ancient and well-known Anglo-Saxon words which liberated black poets felt entitled by heritage to use--words that either delighted or enraged poetry crowds whenever one of us got up to read. It was a delicious conundrum of being avant-garde: African American poets censured for speaking Anglo-Saxon words!
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old hand
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old hand
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Perhaps it was meant to evoke the idea that discussions as to who should receive vaccines would provide much political fodder, and that it therefore represents a 'delicious' problem.
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I agree that it is an inappropriate usage. A better place to find the origin of the phrase would be the wordorigins forum. You have to register to post.
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addict
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addict
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Quote:
"This is a delicious conundrum," Leavitt said, acknowledging it was a "hard problem." He pointed out that any pandemic was likely to last about a year or a year and a half before it petered out. The country needs to be prepared to handle other disasters during that time too, Leavitt said.
Jus wondering, does anybody else interpret this statement as "The military will be some of the first to get the vaccine"?
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jul 2005
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Allowing "delicious" to mean delightful, and supposing that people like Leavitt actually take pleasure in such problems; still, is the expression not literally accurate
Last edited by dalehileman; 06/10/06 02:57 PM.
dalehileman
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I would propose that 1) a "delicious conundrum" should mean one in which all the potential solutions are delightful, and 2) it was definitely inappropriate in the original citation. Perhaps the author meant "delicate" rather than delicious?
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Joined: Jun 2002
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
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yup, poor usage.
but what do you expect?
formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
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The word delicious, according to the OED, has a secondary meaning of intensely amusing or entertaining, which is obviously what the author intended with the phrase "delicious conundrum." A "pretty question" would be a close equivalent. Nothing inappropriate, so far as I can tell. whenever I''ve seen delicious usedthis way I've had the feeling that there was in implication of a certain amount of irony on the part of the author.
TEd
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