Pedantic writing thing: Responding to Obama's speech, everyone's-favorite-smart-conservative Ross Douthat writes:
[B]y using the Wright controversy as an opportunity to play up their candidate's strengths - as an orator, but more importantly as the rare politician who can deliver a thoughtful, nuanced speech and make you feel like he means it - the Obama campaign made some sweet-tasting lemonade out of some bitter-tasting lemons.This is both a very good point, and also, in its final clause, one of the most irritating writerly tics in existence. To avoid the cliche of saying that Obama made lemonade out of lemons, Douthat says that the lemonade was sweet-tasting and the lemons were bitter-tasting. But of course the lemonade was sweet-tasting and the lemons were bitter-tasting! That's the whole point of the lemonade-out-of-lemons cliche! Making the meaning of the cliche explicit is designed to fool people into thinking you've somehow gone beyond the cliche, when you haven't.
Not that there's anything wrong with the cliche in this case -- it's a pretty apt way of expressing the point. Just don't pretend you're not using a cliche when you are.
Just wanted to point that out. You'll hear from me again in another few months, probably.
