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Fighting talk; redundancies

Posted by R. Berg on November 30, 2001

In Reply to: Fighting talk posted by Gary Martin on November 30, 2001

: The UK news today talked of ethnic Pashduns and 'troops on the ground'. Curious. I wonder if there are any non-ethnic Pashduns or troops who confound their enemies by hovering six inches above the ground?

: Two non-war tautologies I enjoyed recently are 'local housing' and 'advance booking'. Anyone else who enjoys (or is it suffers?) from this kind of thing couldn't do better than read the inspired 'catechism of cliche' in Flann O'Brien's Best of Myles.

: Gary

The U.S. press also talks of "troops on the ground" to distinguish them from troops in airplanes.

I often see "potentially dangerous" in reputable publications. Is there a difference between potentially dangerous and actually dangerous?

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