19912: Leiderman: teeming cities, rag-tag armies (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Stuart M Leiderman <leidermn@cisunix.unh.edu>


dear Readers:

the journalistic, double-standard cliches are astounding -- that repeated
phrase:  "Port-au-Prince, the teeming capital of Haiti," the adjective
always used in a disparaging way, as if a Haitian metro surf is washing
in an endless, stinging mass of human jellyfish.  there are also
"teeming" masses in Mexico City and Delhi.  but we never see "teeming"
used to describe rush hour in North American cities...Boston, New York,
Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, etc. when tens of millions of vehicles
intentionally clog the roads twice a day, drivers racing and weaving at 5
mph, two hundred or more horses lashed to every hood, straining to pull
free, going nowhere.  nor is it "teeming" when perposterous numbers of
account executives pour out onto the sidewalks at noon, power-suiting to
beat each other to $20 lunches, returning still hungry, but fat.  okay,
their fat is teeming.

and those "rag-tag rebels."  are there also rag-tag bullets and
rag-tag machetes?  we know what happens when a rag-tag neck gets in the
way of a rag-tag blade.  it's not like playing with dolls.  what's with
rag-tag?  is there a designer rag-tag, too?

the only description I've really liked so far was the one about Aristide's
grand piano tottering on two legs while someone played Scott Joplin on
it.  now, that was a rag!

thank you,

Stuart Leiderman