Friday, December 26, 2008

Reggie Miller is Idiomatically Challenged

I was watching one of the Christmas Day Basketball games--a late one, and it was Kevin Harlan and Reggie Miller doing the broadcast.

Reggie was discussing some player who had had a nice comeback from being almost out of the league, and he referred to him as having a "new leash on life."

Now, it is possible Reggie was drunk, and was slurring his words, though he didn't slur anything else.  

Dear Reggie:  It is "a new LEASE on life."  I know  you've been pretty damn rich for a really long long time, and maybe you forgot "leases" exist.  But they do.  They are for people who don't want to buy things outright, in cash--it is a contractually agreed-upon rental agreement.  So, when someone gets a "new lease on life", they have done something to buy back some more years on their life, as it were.

Therefore, you will please note--that while a "new
 lease on life" makes a bit of sense, "new leash on
 life" makes no sense at all, unless you envision "life" as being some sort of pet.  For example, if you name your Puggle "Life" instead of "Mr. Snugglebritches", and you went out and bought a
 new leash for the Puggle almost known as Mr Snugglebritches, but named Life instead, you can then say, accurately, "I've got a new leash on 'Life.'"

English is hard enough for foreigners to learn without people on TV making it more nonsensical than it already is.  Come on, Reggie!



5 comments:

Lucy Rhode said...

You've been reduced to using the cute puppy. [shakes head]

Big Blue Monkey 2: The Quickening said...

Is that a cute puppy? I had not noticed.

Andrew Wice said...

To hell with the foreigners.

American English has been growing exponentially more nonsensical every year since the first publication of "Archie" comics.

Miwacar said...

Reggie is so used to mispronouncing his ex-teammates name, Rick S"ch"mits, that anytime he runs across an s in certain words, he automatically adds the h.

Come on, he has a college education.

Mr. Puggle said...

Mr Snugglebritches. I like that name!