Phrasebook

A translation from the Doctorish:
“You’re going to feel a little bit of pressure now.”
means
“This is going to hurt like a sunuvabitch.”

Communicating with members of small-scale cultures that speak weird languages can be hard. In particular, confusion can result when those weird languages use what appears to be English grammar, diction, and syntax but have completely different semantic structures.

Consider, for example, the tribe of “doctors.” They say things that sound as if they’re English, but don’t mean what they would mean if an English-speaker said them.

For example, I learned only today that the Doctorish sentence “You’re going to feel a little bit of pressure now” means “This is going to hurt like a sunuvabitch.”

Footnote The good news is that the test results were completely negative.

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out. Books: Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken) When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993) Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989) UCLA Homepage Curriculum Vitae Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com