Yesterday was Plain English Day. "Rumsfeld wins 'Foot in Mouth' award" <http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1001495.htm> US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld won the award for this gem: "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." The following effort by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was also a contender: "I think that gay marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman" The Plain English Campaign Awards <http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/awards.html> Sections: * Plain English (the open category) <http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/peawards.html> * Inside Write (for internal government documents) <http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/insidewrite.html> * Media (for radio, television and newspapers) <http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/mediaawards.html> * Golden Bulls (for gobbledygook) <http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/goldenbull.html> * Foot in Mouth (for a baffling quote by a public figure) <http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/footinmouth.html>
Wednesday, December 3, 2003
Posted by Bruno at 8:12am