Offers Youse Can't Refuse...

This note refers to the Feb. 23 editorial in the Chestnut Hill Local titled "Chestnut Hill or Mob Hill." It's a spot of humor.

By the by, in the Letters section, please clue in on "truthiness." Martha Haley points out: "The editor showed the addition of a "correction" indicated by the insertion of (sic) next to the word "truthiness." It is a word in popular use, resurrected by Comedy Central's Steven Colbert and used by, among others, Frank Rich in the New York Times.

Reference: Truthiness Voted 2005 Word of the Year

In its 16th annual words of the year vote, the American Dialect Society voted truthiness as the word of the year. Recently popularized on the Colbert Report, a satirical mock news show on the Comedy Central television channel, truthiness refers to the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true. As Stephen Colbert put it, "I don't trust books. They're all fact, no heart." Other meanings of the word date as far back as 1824.

To the Chestnut Hill Notebook:

I can't get the image out of my head.

A trim woman wearing a Talbot's dress and a single strand of pearls strides purposefully into the office of the newspaper editor. She glowers threateningly. Her finely manicured hand inches close to her open Coach handbag. In a raspy baritone, she growls: "I'm gonna make ya an offa ya can't refuse."

Cheers,

Bill