Word: tars
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...become a global PC heavyweight. "Amelio is doing exactly what needs to be done," says Joseph Ho, an analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research in Hong Kong. And if Lenovo gets some breathing room, maybe He, the chief technology officer, can focus on learning how to tell a Tar Heel from a Blue Devil...
...coal mining town, which had been 90% or more white, unable to come to grips with its new demographics."It becomes discriminatory in effect, if not in intent," said David Vaida, an attorney from nearby Allentown who is a local counsel on the lawsuit. "I'm not willing to tar anybody who is in favor of this as a racist, but what I do know is that the effect is going to be racist...
...wandering into that territory, Romney has plenty of company. In May, rookie White House spokesman Tony Snow was asked about the government covertly collecting phone records. "I don't want to hug the tar baby of trying to comment on the program...," Snow replied, which brought him an instant round of static. Two years ago, TIME used the phrase, reporting that John Kerry's presidential advisers were telling him to get away from "the Iraq tar baby...
...tar baby a racist term? Like most elements of language, that depends on context. Calling the Big Dig a tar baby is a lot different than calling a person one. But sensitivity is not unwarranted. Among etymologists, a slur's validity hangs heavily on history. The concept of tar baby goes way back, according to Words@Random from Random House: "The tar baby is a form of a character widespread in African folklore. In various folktales, gum, wax or other sticky material is used to trap a person." The term itself was popularized by the 19th-century Uncle Remus stories...
...really important is not etymologically what it means, but the effect it has." And that is a constantly evolving standard. Witness the debate over who can and can't use the N-word. McKean says that the next print version of the Oxford American Dictionary will note that tar baby can have derogatory connotations. Which may help public figures avoid becoming ensnared by Br'er Fox more than a century after he set his little trap...