| Paper Tiger: |
| An expression of contempt first used by Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung (Zedong) in 1946. ("All reactionaries are paper tigers. In appearance, the reactionaries are terrifying , but in reality they are not so powerful") and laterby other communist nations to characterize the ineffectiveness of United States intervention. In 1965, however, Raul Castro, armed forces minister of Cuba, warned: United States imperialism is no paper tiger." Now, a paper tiger is any person or thing that appears strong and powerful but is actually weak or ineffectual. Use: Is NATO through divisiveness becoming a paper tiger? |
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| Public Enemies: A term applied in the 1930's by J.Edgar Hoover, director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, to a group of professional, career criminals. They were widely sought by local and federal police. Now, generally used to describe individuals who are a constant threat to the peace, security, stability of a society or a segment of a society. |
| postal, to go: To go beserk, to lose control. The term originated in the 1990's with a series of vilent random incidents in which post-office workers, seemingly crazed by their boring, repetitive tasks and moved to vent ancient grudges, gunned down their fellow workers. An interesting reverse use of this newly minted term occured in a recent New Yorker headline reading "Jackson Pollock Finally Goes Postal" above an article revealing that the artist, who had long been considered somewhat daffy for his method of dribbling paint on canvas laid out on the floor, was about to be recognized as a great artist of the 20th century by having his portrait on a postage stamp. |