Bloomberg's Favorite Epithet is Unconscionable
Apparently, Mayor Bloomberg uses the word unconscionable so much that the Times poured 969 other words into analyzing the verbal tic. According to the article, Bloomberg’s U-bombing is definitely excessive; he drops the heavy pejorative in situations that don’t merit it, like when a reporter dared ask him if his trip to Israel was calculated to woo Jewish voters. (“That’s unconscionable. You should be ashamed to ask that question,” he reportedly snapped.)
And when a restaurant in Chinatown started charging non-Chinese patrons more, the owners also found themselves stripped of conscience by the mayor. Linguists say that by using the word so much, Bloomberg may be sapping it of meaning – what guys in the language biz call “amelioration,” a sad fate that’s reduced words such as ‘awesome’ and ‘outrageous’ to washed-up has-beens lucky to be uttered ironically.
O.E.D. defines “unconscionable” two ways: when describing a person, it means “having no conscience.” When it applied to actions, it's “showing no regard for conscience; not in accordance with what is right or reasonable.” A spokesman for the mayor, Stu Loeser, gets the last laugh:
Mayor Bloomberg uses both meanings regularly, but not interchangeably. Gun dealers who sell multiple weapons to straw purchasers are unconscionable, in the mayor’s view. But the mayor also uses the second meaning of the word — excessive or beyond reasonable limits — at times, perhaps even more often. We leave it up to your readers to decide if newspaper items like this one fall into this latter category.The Times also thinks the "unconscionable" blitz points to Bloomberg’s imperious personality, which sees anyone opposing him as not just wrong but benighted.
Photograph of Mayor Bloomberg (with girlfriend Diana Taylor on the left) at the 2006 Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley, Idaho by Elaine Thompson/AP
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inconceivable!
Holy Shorts, Batman!
Bloomberg’s imperious personality, which sees anyone opposing him as not just wrong but benighted.
This is the single most annoying thing about Mayor Bloomberg. Any question that appears to challenge his preconceived notions is met with not an answer, but a belittling variation of "That's a stupid question."
"That's the wrong question.
"You should be ashamed to ask that question.
"Why would you ask that question?
"You must be an idiot to ask me that.
"The question you should be asking is . . ."
Mayor Bloomberg is very rich, smart, and successful, but I bet he has few friends, because he's kind of a dick.
You beat me to it, Matty.
But he does get things done.
you keep using that word. i do not think it means what you think it means.
i am going to say what everyone else is thinking: Those shorts, unconscionable.
White socks with those shoes and shorts????? Unconscionable!
A billionaire really should be able to afford better shorts.
It's a slow news day I suppose when articles like this show up on this site. Do you guys need some REAL news? here you go:
Why hasn't GOTHAMIST written about anchor Ron Corning of Fox's Good Day New York? About how he was let go and told he was let go while on vacation? How about writing on why Fox isn't acknowledging the number of people who are demanding Ron be brought back or at least a GOOD explanation as to why he was let go?
Nice headline.
It is unconscionable that he uses the word unsconscionable to frequently. Doesn't he have a plethora of choices?
Damn zodak, you beat me to it!
The socks people..THE SOCKS~!
tycoon; hegemony; how about those words? stripped of their denotative/connotative force yet?
Which restaurant?
I think I signed off on a parcel from this guy. It came two days late but he cheerfully explained about the typo in the forwarding address.