Cliche of the Year: "To Surge"

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Thinking back, it was an ominous portent when Rove orchestrated a "surge" of conservative fundamentalist Ohio voters at the eleventh hour on election day 2004. I suppose they thought it worked so well that they'd try that wording again in order to add a level of magnitude to their warmongering. So we had a "surge" of troops. I always thought that, by definition, a surge was an increase in force that occurred over a short period of time, resulting in momentum. It's been at least six months, hasn't it? According to recent media, "the surge is working." Which means exactly, what?

As if that wasn't bad enough, the word "surge" or "to surge" or "surging" becan to appear all over the place during this last year. This seemed to be perfectly acceptable, despite its lack of originality and sometimes semantically questionable application.

2007 was the year of the "surge."

One day last week I found that the following had occurred:

A Surge in copper prices helped drive gains in mining
A Surge helped McCain at the polls in New Hampshire
A Surge in demand at food pantries feeding the poor was seen at the holidays
A Surge in shares of Umbro, maker of UK jerseys, occurred, boosting stocks
A Surge in crude oil prices followed a US consumer spending binge
A Surge in tech stocks was seen after taking a breather
A Surge in Polish asylum seekers needing housing was experienced
A Surge in visits to Edwards and Huckabee websites was tabulated
A Surge in online retail rescues sales
AND, THE Surge is working in Iraq, says Bush

Checking today, there is still no letup in the general surging as:

A Surge in global energy announces review of Canadian Tax Reserves
A Surge in UK shoppers post-Christmas makes up for disappointing pre-sales
A Surge masks growing concern over New Year slump
A Surge of shopping occurs on Boxing Day
A Surge of holiday travellers crowds airports
A Surge is seen for Edwards, who had the right message at the right time
A Surge is also seen for Obama
A Surge in Iowa is hoped for in Iowa
A Surge Boosts McCain's campaign with success of Iraq
A Surge is seen in rainwater tanks applications
A Surge is seen in soybeans pricesA Surge for the holiday leads to crowded airports
A Surge is seen in solar stocks as oil spikes
AND THE SURGE is still working in Iraq.
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Google Results 1 - 10 of about 49,800,000 for surge [definition]. (0.10 seconds) on 12/21/07 at 10:44:02 PM.

Definition Poem

Surge
a billowing or rise, waves
a movement, of an army

Surge
rapidly, the dollar against the yen;
rushing forcefully forward, as a crowd

Surge
a sudden or abrupt increase,
speculation, emotion, crime

Surge
a heaving upward, vessel's movement
fore and aft, ebbing and flowing of the sea

Surge, a citrus soft drink introduced in Norway
by Coca Cola under the name Urge
to compete with Pepsi's Mountain Dew

Surge, a fictional character, a Marvel Mutant
of the student body of Xavier Institute,
leader of the new X-Men

Surge
a glacial velocity of substantial advance
most commonly in Alaska and Canada

Surge
an oversupply of voltage, rise of pressure,
momentary to several seconds
can damage electronic equipment

Surge
a rise in water pressure, in bays and harbors
atmospheric fluctuations, more rapidly than usual
said of a glacier

Comments

[Slugbug]

It seems to me there's been somewhat of a news blackout on Iraq, ever since "the surge" started - suppression of negative news. Maybe I've just started to tune out more. I did see that fatalities for troops were at 3900 something, putting us closer to the 4000 mark. Anyone talking about it? Is it a "psychologically important" number as were 1000, 2000, 3000? What about wounded? IEDs? Most of what's been getting through my filters makes McCain "surge" and the lame duck keep squawking (as I see he's on the cover of Parade magazine, with his own summary of 2007). Maybe I'm just tuning out bad news around the holidays (but some things get through), just tired. Seriously, I have noticed a difference in coverage that seems disproportionate to what 40,000 extras placed anywhere could have sustained. Curious minds are wondering.

Google Iraq. & it looks like a "mixed day" as they say on Wall Street - violence down/attacks up, progress made/deadliest year etc.

Sunni forces targeted in Iraq
Suicide truck bomber kills nine in Iraq: police
No place in Iraq is safe, says US military
Bin Laden warns Sunni Arabs in Iraq to back Al Qaeda
2 Killed in Iraq Roadside Bomb
Suicide Bomber Kills 4 in Iraq
Three UK drugs firms investigated over alleged Iraq bribes
2007 is America's deadliest year in Iraq
Iraq Attacks Fall 60 Percent
Iraq violence drops to summer 2005 levels
Despite drop in violence, suicide bombings make comeback in Iraq
Despite Success, Iraq's Future Uncertain
Baghdad women defy extremists
2007 Deadliest for US Troops in Iraq.
Kurdish rebels in Iraq vow to carry out more attacks
Economy Nudging Iraq Aside As Issue
Six-Year-Old's Letter About Dead Father Was a Lie to Win Free Ticket
to Hannah Montana

[kayakbiker]

You omitted my favorite Serj of 2007 - Serj Tankian.

http://www.serjtankian.com/