Don Watson on Rudd Speak

There’s a great inter­view tran­script on the ABC web­site fea­tur­ing author and speech­writer Don Watson.

Here’s his plea to the PM

I think he really ought to see it as one of his respon­si­bil­i­ties to use the lan­guage as it’s meant to be used. I mean he does under­stand lan­guage very well, he knows when and how to use it well, which makes it all the less for­giv­able that he uses it so tire­somely so often.

Here’s his take on spin.

They just send us mes­sages, and they call it spin, you know, which look if it was spin it would be fan­tas­tic, I wouldn’t mind it. Spin sort of sug­gests some­thing mes­meris­ing. This isn’t spin it’s anaes­thetic. It’s like a big cloud of gas that comes over and makes cut­ting your toe­nails look interesting.

Spin gets a bit of a bad wrap. Every­body spins. Some peo­ple just declare it more than oth­ers. Here’s an exam­ple of how spin can be help­ful, not dishonest.

Fact: Townsville is not widely known as a hol­i­day des­ti­na­tion.
Bad Spin: Nobody goes to Townsville for a hol­i­day.
Good Spin: Townsville is an undis­cov­ered and emerg­ing hol­i­day destination.

Both state­ments say essen­tially the same thing. One is more likely to get peo­ple to con­sider a hol­i­day in Townsville.

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Eutychus was a young man who fell to his death because the Apostle Paul preached for too long (Acts 20). I've decided to canonise Eutychus and make him the patron saint of my dalliances around the Internet.

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Jeff K : I ask people how their Bible reading is going if I get into an awkward convo at church. works a treat.
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KIM : *like* or am i not supposed to put words in stars?? i like it anyway!
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Ben McLaughlin : Heh! That's cool that they were such good sports about it.
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Al Bain : It was your comment that all actions should tick at least one that got me wondering. I think the three categories we have been talking about are helpful. And probably the easiest way to thi
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Nathan Campbell : I don't know that I'm restricting all actions to this trichotomy - because I think "worship" is probably another element that could be added to the Venn diagram (that would overlap heavily with the ot
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al bain : On what scriptural basis are you restricting all actions to this trichotomy?
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Nathan Campbell : How are these, for definitions... Work = Activities for bringing order. Rest = Activities for rejuvenation. Play = Activities for pleasure. I still think the best actions tick two or more of
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KIM : i second the recommendation for communicate jesus -- and can vouch that its blogger is just as adept at real life interaction as he is at facebook!
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Gary Ware : That hollow feeling in the pit of your gut when the fact you've been ripped off is really something isn't it? At least it doesn't involve damage to the car, as well. We had our Tarago front quarter w
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Anika Q : Rather off topic, but I found out today that there is a seminar on the Eutychus passage in Acts in UQ's religious department this Friday at 2. I thought I'd mention it to you, for obvious reasons.
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