So much drama over a number!
What does someone mean when they say something should be "86"ed?
It's not confusing. It doesn't hinge on situational content, but on who's using it. It doesn't even have anything to do with the origin of the term.
If someone's background is restaurant-/food-related. they think "86" means to "get rid of". That's how they'll use it. That's what they'll hear or see when anyone else uses it.
If someone's background is crime/government, they think "86" means to "kill". That's how they'll use it. That's what they'll hear or see when anyone else uses it.
It's simple.
This is why neither side thinks the other side is using it correctly. It gives plausible deniability.
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Thank you for reading.
The term "86" is neither restaurant/food related nor crime/government related. It's nightclub/bar security related.
ReplyDeleteTo "86" someone is to remove and ban a customer from a bar or nightclub.
That's what it means.
That's what it's always meant.
That's all it's ever meant.
Your naïveté is cute, and I'm guessing that you are someone who has never been around criminals. That is certainly not *all* the term has ever meant.
DeleteYes, I've been around criminals. I've also been a nightclub bouncer (where the term "86" was used), a restaurant cook (where it was never used), and a government employee (where the only time I ever heard it used was in the nightclub sense at an E-club).
DeleteAny attempt to redefine it to mean "murder" is pretty much just a funnier version of Bill Clinton's "depends on what the meaning of 'is' is."
Nightclubs count as "restaurant-related"- even if what is served is all liquid.
DeleteAnd even if that's where the term originated, it has been adopted elsewhere for a very long time. I heard it used in the context of killing someone (actually some*thing*) years before I heard it used in the other context (which was when this controversy started recently). You can argue that they are using it wrong, but they have been using it that way.
OK, if you say so (btw, I worked in a coupe of clubs that served neither food nor booze -- BYOB strip clubs in Missouri. At the time, at least, if they served booze the dancers could only go down to a g-string and pasties, while if they didn't, the dancers could go totally nude; one of those clubs was pretty much just a draw for the liquor store next door, buy your booze, go to the club, duck out of the club for more booze).
ReplyDeleteLanguage and definitions are notoriously flexible. What was originally specific inevitably becomes analogous for something else. One need only trace the use of the political label ‘liberal’ to see that process manifested. Resisting this is akin to that little Dutch boy sticking his finger in the leaking dike; nice try, but ultimately futile.
ReplyDeleteOK, let me put it a different way then:
ReplyDeleteThere is precisely zero chance that Comey meant "murder Trump" with his use of the numbers "8647." He's far too much of an establishment lover to go there.
Nor is anyone with an IQ of higher than 47 dumb enough to really believe that that was the intended message.
I agree. I don’t think anyone, including the mentally clueless or the Trump regime (but I repeat myself) believed that. It nevertheless served as an excuse for the pathologically power-mad to threaten those who weren’t obediently on board with the regime.
DeleteFrom the Trump inner circle's POV, I don't think threatening was really the point. They just wanted something to whine about that would distract from a pretty bad news cycle (the Qatari bribes, Trump's "big beautiful bill" going down in flames in the House, etc.).
DeleteThis is so peculiar. Why would a former director of the FBI put up such a post in the first place?
ReplyDelete