Boo and Hooray (in quotes)

Premium access solutions

Euphemisms:
"The trusted global partner for premium access solutions and services". Translation: We make doors. (Hugh Pearman)

The hit BBC series Sherlock has introduced a whole new generation of fans to Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary detective. In this unique collection, Sherlock co-creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss have selected their all-time favourite Sherlock Holmes adventures, providing readers a curated masterclass in crime fiction. (Writers' top picks.)

Star: I hate this number! The staging is from the Stone Age! Oh, forget it! (storms off)
MD: She’s just tired! It’s nerves!

If you switch on the radio in LA you will hear ads for cosmetic surgery dressed up as 'indulging yourself'. (@matthaig1)

It wasn’t pressured, it was zealous! It was enthusiastic! (Talking head on BBC News defending a firm providing broadband to schools that warned heads not to be “stubbornly tempted” (boo!) to look elsewhere and compare prices.)

Make meaningful connections: There’s nothing wrong with taking stock of who you’re talking to and making a positive remark referring to something you notice about them. If someone is dressed to the 9s, tell them they’re looking sharp, or ask them what the occasion is. Chances are, something special is going on that they’d be more than happy to talk about. (lifehack.org)

For anyone curious, "urban" in "urban myth/legend" is essentially shorthand for "modern" or "contemporary." (It's an Urban Legend ‏@ULTweets)

I've seen PD James called "cozy," which just goes to show that definitions can vary widely! (Curtis Evans Vary widely: completely miss the mark)

Dysphemisms:

The urban environment, dense, sprawling and perpetually haunted by multiple histories, has long played upon the mind of its inhabitants. (Steven Pile, calling for papers for an OU conference on urban legends Dense: People living too close together, not spaced out as they are in the countryside. Sprawling: The city has escaped and is taking over bits of the countryside.)

Brian Sewell had been trotting out his allegations about Gow for years. (TLS Feb 2016-02-27)

As a rich property owner says ‘Bolsheviks’ - as an earnest Communist says ‘Capitalists!’ - as a good housewife says ‘Blackbeetles’ - so did Miss Williams say ‘Men!’ (Five Little Pigs, Agatha Christie)

Thus prepared, they trotted off to Maryland, to tie the ill-fated knot. (Daily Telegraph)

New ash cloud chaos for Australia – Australia's two major airports in Sydney and Melbourne face up to 48 hours of disruption as the ash cloud from a Chilean volcano hits again. (BBC Online Chaos: airports close for two days, privileged people are inconvenienced.)

A sampling of the lovely words and phrases Scalia uses instead of the word bullshit:
    jiggery-pokery
    Pure applesauce
    curious
    outlandishness
    quite absurd
    defense of the indefensible
    maintain with a straight face
    This
    unheard of
    implausible conclusion
    pretense
    dismal failure
    somersaults of statutory interpretation
    words no longer have meaning

(He was cross about the Supreme Court and Obamacare.)


Boo or hooray? When there are two words for something, one must be the boo word...

Women’s Equality party leader Sophie Walker: “It’s complex, but not complicated.”

And of course my ideology isn't really an ideology at all, it's just plain common sense and rationality. (@WillWiles)

I view presents as things that people want and gifts as stuff that the giver doesn't want to buy and the recipient does not want to receive. (PMcD)

Metaphors for once lowly astrocytes changed from housekeepers and nursemaids to architects and masters. (@utafrith) 

When the rich rob the poor it is called business. When the poor fight back it is called violence. (Roy Hirst ‏@royx44)

Nuclear always gets "support", "guarantees" or "investment", whilst any money going into green energy is "subsidy". (Rob Greenland ‏@TheSocBiz)

More here, and links to the rest.