Don't Trust Snakes: Sic transit certiorari

<body><script type="text/javascript"> function setAttributeOnload(object, attribute, val) { if(window.addEventListener) { window.addEventListener('load', function(){ object[attribute] = val; }, false); } else { window.attachEvent('onload', function(){ object[attribute] = val; }); } } </script> <div id="navbar-iframe-container"></div> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://apis.google.com/js/platform.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> gapi.load("gapi.iframes:gapi.iframes.style.bubble", function() { if (gapi.iframes && gapi.iframes.getContext) { gapi.iframes.getContext().openChild({ url: 'https://www.blogger.com/navbar.g?targetBlogID\x3d12988030\x26blogName\x3dDon\x27t+Trust+Snakes\x26publishMode\x3dPUBLISH_MODE_BLOGSPOT\x26navbarType\x3dBLUE\x26layoutType\x3dCLASSIC\x26searchRoot\x3dhttps://donttrustsnakes.blogspot.com/search\x26blogLocale\x3den_US\x26v\x3d2\x26homepageUrl\x3dhttp://donttrustsnakes.blogspot.com/\x26vt\x3d-4673447362931781663', where: document.getElementById("navbar-iframe-container"), id: "navbar-iframe", messageHandlersFilter: gapi.iframes.CROSS_ORIGIN_IFRAMES_FILTER, messageHandlers: { 'blogger-ping': function() {} } }); } }); </script>

“I know where I'm headed.”

ROGER THORNHILL

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Sic transit certiorari

How do you write a long article about the U.S. Supreme Court's "dwindling docket" without ever using the word "certiorari"? It's simple, apparently. Just start referring to the Court's grant of jurisdiction as "granting a case." As in "[t]o grant a case takes four votes."

Go ahead and ignore the fact that the construction makes no sense and has not, to my knowledge, ever been used before anywhere by anyone. If the New York Times really needed to dumb things down, "accepting a case" would have been a much better construction.

0 Comments: