By now I'm sure that you have heard that Donald Rumsfeld was named as the Foot in Mouth award winner for this statement:
Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don't know we don't know.
This makes perfect sense to me but that isn't the problem that I have with this award. It's the name of the award. The idiom, putting your foot in your mouth, means to say something that causes embarassment. For example, let's say we're at a party. We have just been introduced. On the other side of the room is some woman making a fool of herself. I make some catty comment about her (remember this is hypothetical, you know I would never do that) only to find out that she is your girlfriend/sister/best friend/whatever. I have just put my foot in my mouth.
So why is the Plain English Campaign calling this a foot in mouth statement? If a speaker assumes you are able to follow a logical statement and don't need to be talked down to then the embarassment should be yours, not his.
Posted by marybeth at December 4, 2003 10:38 AM Box of Rocks