# Gerrymandering myself out of a great job **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 11, 2007, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerrymandering-myself-out-of-a-great-job/429633 "2007-12-11T18:04:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![ChiefScott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58f4c7/32.png) [@ChiefScott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChiefScott)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerrymandering-myself-out-of-a-great-job/429633/101 "2007-12-28T12:20:59Z")
Yup. “Less unique.” I’m only a _bit_ of a dunderhead. ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerrymandering-myself-out-of-a-great-job/429633/102 "2007-12-28T13:44:15Z")
This would have been a funnier story if it were someone else at the meeting coming in to make fun of his coworker who thought he knew what a big word meant, but didn’t, and what a fool he looked like trying to explain his way out of it. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerrymandering-myself-out-of-a-great-job/429633/103 "2007-12-28T15:19:36Z")
[QUOTE=Contrapuntal] Metaphors aren’t definitions either. And according to the OP, he was trying to explain what it meant. Which is also not a metaphor. [/quote] He was explaining what he meant by it and it was a metaphorical use. Not a perfect analogy to the literal definition, but a perfectly understandable one. Your position in this thread is a very strange one. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerrymandering-myself-out-of-a-great-job/429633/104 "2007-12-28T17:00:37Z")
[QUOTE=acsenray] He was explaining what he meant by it and it was a metaphorical use. Not a perfect analogy to the literal definition, but a perfectly understandable one. Your position in this thread is a very strange one. [/QUOTE] It’s obviously a metaphorical use, but it’s a bad metaphor/analogy, in my opinion. While it is understood what the OP meant by that word, his usage did make me stop in my tracks and wonder what the hell he was talking about. I almost always take the more descriptivist/liberal side on language debates, but the usage of “gerrymander” in the OP is artless. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerrymandering-myself-out-of-a-great-job/429633/105 "2007-12-28T17:10:04Z")
[QUOTE=pulykamell] It’s obviously a metaphorical use, but it’s a bad metaphor/analogy, in my opinion. While it is understood what the OP meant by that word, his usage did make me stop in my tracks and wonder what the hell he was talking about. I almost always take the more descriptivist/liberal side on language debates, but the usage of “gerrymander” in the OP is artless. [/QUOTE] That may be, but it’s also not entirely mystifying. And Contra’s continual insistence that “gerrymander” means nothing outside the context of political boundaries _is_ mystifying. In English, we use words outside their literal context _all the freaking time_. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerrymandering-myself-out-of-a-great-job/429633/106 "2007-12-28T17:24:21Z")
[QUOTE=acsenray] That may be, but it’s also not entirely mystifying. And Contra’s continual insistence that “gerrymander” means nothing outside the context of political boundaries _is_ mystifying. In English, we use words outside their literal context _all the freaking time_. [/QUOTE] No arguments from me there. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerrymandering-myself-out-of-a-great-job/429633.md?page=5)