Thursday, February 05, 2009

SWAT

When I can bring myself to watch a television newscast, I usually find myself frustrated when the newsreader (yes, that's the original title) not only talks more rapidly than her visual recognition and vocal apparatus can handle, but makes mistakes in names and locations. Would that the names in 'newstories' appeared 'on the tube' in legible print. T'other night I beheld a report that involved what sounded like a breath-mint brand but turned out to be a police tactical unit.

Searching in www.dogpile.com I found this exhaustive reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWAT

Now enlightened, I understand that the breath-mint phoneme stands for 'Special Response Team' which is one sort of 'Special Weapons and Tactics'(SWAT). Once upon a time, a swat was something a child received when he or she was supposed guilty of malfeasance or nonfeasance. "Ah, brave new world!"

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