Not a dry eye
If you looked at The Sun’s commemorative section in Sunday’s editions on the presidential election, you might have noticed a reproduction of the paper’s front page from the 1932 edition proclaiming, “ROOSEVELT IS ELECTED.” And had you looked more closely, you would have seen a secondary headline above the banner, “New Congress Wet.”
Puzzled?
Elections through the 1920s often turned on whether candidates were “wet” or “dry” — that is, whether they favored repeal or retention of Prohibition. Franklin Roosevelt proceeded determinedly, and successfully, for Repeal, perhaps the first time, and certainly the last, that H.L. Mencken approved of his actions as president.
Comments
"Guess what David? While Republican reformists are desperately trying to whether their party's cold winter, the Democrats will continue actually listening to what voters want ..."
(a comment from a thread on D.Brooks's Veterans' Day op-ed)
'weather or not?'
Posted by: gilman grad | November 11, 2008 10:38 AM
A funny corollary to this homophonic confusion is the 'mondegreen' : e.g. "'scuse me while i kiss this guy'" as (not) expressed by Jimi Hendrix. The term shouldn't be confused with the 'soramimi', but is acceptable in tandem with the 'oronym'.
Posted by: gilman grad | November 12, 2008 10:19 AM
"And there's a wino down the road..."
(What Robert Plant did (not) express (or sing).
Thanks, gg.
Posted by: jl | November 17, 2008 9:20 PM