Comments
Andrew Sullivan says Olympia Snowe can do pretty much whatever she wants, “Because she has more Democratic support in her state than Republican, and the combination makes her impregnable.”
She’s 62 years old, for goodness sakes. Surely, if she were planning to have children, she’d have done so by now.
Categories
Tags
She’s 62 years old, for goodness sakes. Surely, if she were planning to have children, she’d have done so by now.
I saw the title on Twitter, and before I clicked through I thought the same thing about her being “impregnable.” That said, let’s leave it to Sully to obssess yet again, over a woman’s uterus, even one that is comparable to a coconut husk discarded on the side of the road at the height of the Philippine summer.
I was about to jump in with the chortling about Sully’s Oxford education, but it appears he used the word correctly (if he meant it, as it would appear, as a synonym of ‘invulnerable’). The antonym of ‘impregnable’ would thus be ‘pregnable’; ‘unimpregnable’ would be an improper construction like ‘irregardless’.
I was about to jump in with the chortling about Sully’s Oxford education, but it appears he used the word correctly (if he meant it, as it would appear, as a synonym of ‘invulnerable’).
He was using the word both correctly and in the way it’s by far most commonly used and, as such, I knew what he meant instantly. The secondary meaning of the word just happened to amuse me.
DocJ: ever notice how the more common usage of some words can dilute their denotation? How many times have read about “brutal” or “savage” attacks from perfectly civilized and rational people who are able to stand trial? I know, language evolves, but I still mourn what happened with the word “vulgar,” which I can’t use in everyday conversation without sounding… Obama-ish.
Sullivan used the word the definition I’ve known it for 30 years at least. As a chess player, I’ve often referred to a well defended position as impregnable. For example when I drew one of the top 10 United States Correspondence chess players in a game we played 3 years ago. His queen couldn’t beat my impregnable defensive setup consisting of a Rook, Knight, and King though Corky had a material advantage.
http://www.uschess.org/cc/dunne/march07dunnecolumn.pdf
Back to Snowe. Her first husband Peter Snowe, a Maine State Representative, died when she was 26. She ran to fill his seat.
Snowe was elected to Congress in 1978. There she met and married her 2nd husband, Maine’s other Congressperson John Mckernan. For a while Maine’s congressional delegation was married to one another. McKernan got elected Governor in 1986 and served for 8 years. Snowe was Maine’s first lady too. I do not know if either of her marriages produced children.
All of this information comes from memory. I read the American Almanac of Politics as a hobby and been doing so since 1983. What do you expect from someone who tried out for Jeopardy.
…even one that is comparable to a coconut husk discarded on the side of the road at the height of the Philippine summer.
I think I just threw up in my mouth, actually.
How lovely…thanks for exposing yourself, fellas…by the way, I wonder how many people throw up in their mouths whenever they have the misfortune to look at Eric’s mug…
