August 14, 2003
Usage Bugaboo
Josh Marshall on Bush's pay cut for soldiers in Iraq: This, quite literally, takes the cake. The Pentagon and the White House are pushing to cut the pay of American troops serving in Iraq. [emphasis added]
"Literally" does not intensify the use of a metaphor; it implies that an expression that is usually used metaphorically is in a particular instance literally true rather than metaphorically true.
It would be literally taking the cake if the MREs that US troops were served in Iraq hitherto included a piece of cake for dessert, but that from now on, as a cost-cutting move, they would have instead an Oreo cookie.
(This criticism of a non-Republican blogger is brought my my intent to bring the standards of fairness and balance set by Fox News to As I Please.)
Posted by abostick at August 14, 2003 10:36 AMIf soldiers frequently use their allowance to purchase cake, a cut in their allowances would be taking cake from them.
But I suspect those allowances go towards vices less innocuous than a piece of cake :)
Posted by: jeremy at August 14, 2003 11:08 AM
