Word: impression
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Most intelligent laymen regard the jargon of lawyers as an obvious trade trick, a professional pig-Latin calculated to obscure otherwise simple matters and impress clients with the indispensability of their services. Fortunately, most of their pompous verbal mumbo-jumbo is harmless tautology. But at least one legal usage- "and/or"-is dangerous nonsense...
Economist Harold G. Moulton of the Brookings Institution tried to impress the assembled industrialists with the idea that the best way for them to save their capitalist hides was to reduce prices.* And Mr. Moulton was seconded by General Motors' Alfred P. Sloan Jr. But the rest of the congressional record was such a name-calling contest that the New York Times suggested: "The spokesmen for business organizations ought not to sound like the chairman of the Republican National Committee...
...either if you had been as scared as I was that night with Pappy a-yellin' and a-cussin' and Edith a-tryin' to outrun him!" Edith, argued her lawyers, had exercised no more than her "God-given right of self-defense." But that did not impress the mountain jury, which, after less than an hour's deliberation, returned a verdict which sent Edith on her way to prison for 25 years...
...necessary for Queen Victoria's campaigners to execute Afghans by blowing them from cannon mouths to impress other Afghans sufficiently with the horror of their death. In Harar last week it was necessary for Ras Nassibu, the Ethiopian Commander facing Italian General Rodolfo Graziani, to impress with similar horror the simple African mind. Twelve Ethiopian traitors, accused of being pro-Italian, were led chained into Harar's market place to the rattle of drums...
...Experts in domestic politics have for some time been anxious to have the [election] safely over before public opinion understands the extent of the failure of the policy pursued at Geneva. . . . The spectacular activities of Anthony Eden, Minister for League Affairs, may impress public opinion for a time, yet the Government know that the impression is unstable unless it is borne out by facts, which are not forthcoming. Therefore haste is imperative before the partial failure of the plan for collective security through Geneva stands revealed...