Hornswaggler | The culture, the humor, a bit of the sports, not so much the politics, and the workplace distraction
Hornswaggle is an alternate spelling of
hornswoggle, an archaic word that means to bamboozle or hoodwink. I take my
pronunciation from the late Harvey Korman in "Blazing Saddles" --
"I want rustlers, cutthroats, murderers,
bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits,
vipers, snipers, conmen, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers,
buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswagglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train
robbers, bank robbers, ass kickers, shit kickers and Methodists!"
In a column that feels a bit tangential, given the events of the past couple days, Tom Friedman tells us that America must not become protectionist while it attempts to repair the economy.
I concede Friedman's larger point that the Obama administration, while working to pull the country out of its nose dive, needs to do more than stop the bleeding. It needs to make sure America paves the way for its next generation of entrepreneurs.
But I was nonplussed by this sentence: "We want to -- we have to -- come out of (the recession) with a new Intel, Google, Microsoft and Apple." (Emphasis added.)
So within the next 5-10 3-7 years we need to have four new companies that are comparable to the world's leading maker of computer processors, the most successful Internet company on the planet, the top software company in American history and the sleekest, most creative computer and technology company the world has ever seen?
I think most people will be happy if they have jobs, Holmes.
