Stalking Horse is a Spoiler

I didn't know there was an official name for a political spoiler until today. You know, the candidate that is similar to another, more popular candidate of one of the major parties. Usually the spoiler only differs in a hand full of points from the main party candidates. In all cases, the spoiler is always, without exception, running for ego driven, self-aggrandizement purposes. Otherwise, they'd focus on getting their "team member" elected and work with the major candidate's administration to get their points of views worked on from within the system.

The bad thing (at least when it's your party) about the spoiler is that they drain away enough votes from their ideological peer to allow the opposition party to win. Think Ralph Nader's affect on Al Gore's chances for United States president in 2000.

Thanks to Anu Garg's Wordsmith.org A Word A Day email, now I know the official word for political spoiler.


Stalking Horse 1

MEANING: noun:

1. Something used to mask the true purpose.

2. A candidate put forward in an election to draw votes from another or to conceal another's potential candidacy.

ETYMOLOGY: After the former practice of bird hunters of hiding behind a horse (or a decoy) until he had reached within close range of prey.
This week's theme: words about government, politics, and elections.


Stalking Horse 2

1. Something used to cover one's true purpose; a decoy.

2. A sham candidate put forward to conceal the candidacy of another or to divide the opposition.

3. A horse trained to conceal the hunter while stalking. A canvas screen made in the figure of a horse, used for similar concealment.

Manufactured Outrage

I love today's word of the day at Urban Dictionary. This has been happening so much lately, I'm glad someone coined a word for it. The evening news programs are the masters, but other media outlets are just as bad.

Manufactured Outrage

A falsified righteous outrage at things that are basically unimportant and meaningless, frequently employed by politicians, political activists, or the media. Politicians and talking heads use it to garner support for their causes, to claim the moral high ground and to tar their opponents; the media often just uses it in a cynical bid to increase ratings.

Manufactured outrages of note include Nipplegate, the Monica Lewinski scandal, the 2009 tea partys, backmasked satanic lyrics, lapel pin controversies...

Just about any time you hear any politician, activist, or radio show host getting outraged about anything, really. The louder and angrier they get, the harder they're working at manufacturing it.

by Aquillion2 May 20, 2009

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An invention of the mainstream media, aka MSM, intended to drum up outrage at a statement or situation. The key characteristics of manufactured outrage are: prior to the media's intervention, the vast majority of the general population had never heard of the statement or had never found the statement or situation to be objectionable in any way.

by Ellsworth Dec 18, 2006

Atticism

Attic Greek coin showing Athena's Owl

- the style or idiom of Attic Greek occurring in another dialect or language.

- attachment to Athens or to the style, customs, etc., of the Athenians.

- concise and elegant expression, diction, or the like.

- An expression characterized by conciseness and elegance.

Origin:
1605–15; Gk Attikismós a siding with Athens, an Attic expression.

Dictionary.com. Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc.

- A pure and refined style of expression in any language, originally the purest and most refined style of the ancient

Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)

- A witty or well-turned phrase

Merriam-Webster Online. 2 January 2009

- Its original simplicity meant that it remained universally comprehensible throughout the Greek world. This helped maintain vital cultural links across the Mediterranean and beyond.

Wikipedia

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I like this word because I aspire to write in this style. Unfortunately, I get too wordy at times.

Grandboss

Grandboss

The boss of your boss.

It was annoying to have to submit a TPS report to my boss and my grandboss. It's enough to make a dude blazy.

Urban Dictionary

This is a word that should be used by as many people as possible. A lot easier than saying my boss's boss.

Skeuomorph

SKYOO-uh-morf

A design feature copied from a similar artifact in another material, even when not functionally necessary. For example, the click sound of a shutter in an analog camera that is now reproduced in a digital camera by playing a sound clip.

A skeuomorph can be employed for various purposes. Since people are used to the click sound of a camera as feedback that the picture has been taken, it is now artificially-produced in digital cameras. Other examples are copper cladding on a zinc penny (for familiarity) and wood finish on a plastic product (for a more expensive look).

From Greek skeuos (vessel, implement) + -morph (form)

A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

An ornament or design on an object copied from a form of the object when made from another material or by other techniques, as an imitation metal rivet mark found on handles of prehistoric pottery.

Dictionary.com


A derivative object which retains ornamental design cues to structure that was necessary in the original. Skeuomorphs may be deliberately employed to make the new look comfortably old and familiar, such as copper cladding on zinc pennies or computer printed postage with circular town name and cancellation lines. The word derives from Greek, skeuos for 'vessel' or 'tool' and morphe for 'shape'.

Wikipedia

Skeumorphs are Material Metaphors

Efforts to make the new look comfortably old and familiar, or simply habits too deeply engrained to wash away.

Archaeologists, who make an academic practice of studying material culture change, while not the first to notice that yesterday’s functional features become today’s stylistic decorations, were at least the first to name the phenomenon:

Skeuomorphs are material metaphors. They are informational attributes of artifacts which help us find a path through unfamiliar territory. They help us map the new onto an existing cognitive structure, and in so doing, give us a starting point from which we may evolve additional alternative solutions. They provide us with "a path" instead of "no path" at all.

Skeuomorphs and Cultural Algorithms by Nicholas Gessler


For some reason, I find Skeuomorph a fascinating word. It's fun trying to think of other examples other than those above.

• A horse on a Mustang car
• A carriage on the side of an RV
• A pocket watch pocket in jeans
• Molded plastic with fake looking screw heads
• Digital knobs, buttons, switches and sliders that duplicate the ones that existed on the original physical device being emulated
• Stone or metal decorative features that simulate wooden or timber structures like studs or crossed corners
• QWERTY keyboard. Originally laid out to prevent physical keys from getting stuck when popular letters were together in the original typing machines.
• Plastic sandals that look like fabric or leather
• Spoke patterns on hubcaps and rims to copy the old carriage wheels
• Molded trigger on plastic guns
• Molded furniture that looks like wicker or woven cane
• Gesture that people use to get someone to to roll down a car window. Miming a circular hand crank
• Canopy bed simulating a private cave
• The concept of pages in word processing software and web pages on the internet.
• Bookmarks is as archaic as web pages.
• Wood grain on cheaply made products
• Lights shaped like candles
• Shopping cart icons on ecommerce web sites
• Reel-to-reel tape icon used to represent a tape such as a voice mail message
• Old fashioned key or lock to represent security
• Concrete outdoor furniture that looks like wood or metal
• Manila folder icons on computer
• Video gambling machines that simulate one-arm slot machines
• Floppy disk icon button which stands for "Save" in computer applications
• Taj Mahal architecture that simulates traditional Mongolian tents (gers or yurts)
• Calling the strings of instruments like guitar, harp, violin, cello or bass gut even though they may be made of steel or nylon