Which is your favorite network news program?

[freudianlip]

I too had to vote planet x, as you did not include Al Jazeera ( in english), One excellent show is called Witness.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

I'm not usually a spelling cop, but jeez -- milktoast?!?

OK, milk toast, or did you want a hyphen?

It isn't like I don't edit typos multiple times on all my posts and mostly use a spell checker. One gets tired of worrying about those two word, one word issues.

 

[hgc]

OK, milk toast, or did you want a hyphen?

It isn't like I don't edit typos multiple times on all my posts and mostly use a spell checker. One gets tired of worrying about those two word, one word issues.

Um, I really don't want to post twice on the same misspelling and thus appear excessively pedantic, but the word is milquetoast.

 

[ConspiRaider]

Basically I just watch Paddy Chayefsky's Network over and over again and I know exactly what is going on in the world.

"You eat like the Tube, you dress your children like the Tube, you're even beginning to think like the Tube - my God, this is mass madness, you maniacs!"

Paddy knew it all 30 years ago. Amazing.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Um, I really don't want to post twice on the same misspelling and thus appear excessively pedantic, but the word is milquetoast.

You need to get out more.

Defined:
Milk toast

Milk toast

Milk toast

Recipes:
Milk toast

Milk toast

Milk toast

And finally, synonyms:
Milk toast

Did it ever dawn on you there might be more than one word for milquetoast? In fact, this definition for milquetoast, isn't even the one I was using.

a person who is timid or meek, unassertive. Such people may appear apathetic or unmotivated, but that’s not the reason for their being quiet.

It’s an eponym, named after a fictional cartoon character named Caspar Milquetoast, invented by the American illustrator Harold T Webster in 1924. The strip was called The Timid Soul and appeared every Sunday in the New York Herald Tribune up to his death in 1953. Mr Webster said that his character was “the man who speaks softly and gets hit with a big stick”.

The name is just a Frenchified respelling of the old American English term milk toast, an uninspiring, bland dish which was created from slices of buttered toast laid in a dish of milk, usually considered to be food for invalids.

I've never heard of Caspar Milquetoast, of if I have I've forgotten the character. I was not referring to a timid, meek, or unassertive person. I was referring to bland, gutless, nothing of substance, milk toast news. On the last link for milk toast, the thesaurus lists two categories. Catergory 1 is timid, or milquetoast in your repertoire. The second is

Main Entry: vapid
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: dull
Synonyms: big zero, bland, boring, colorless, dead*, driveling, flat, flat tire*, flavorless, inane, innocuous, insipid, jejune, least, lifeless, limp, milk-and-water*, milk-toast, nothing, nowhere, stale, tame, tasteless, tedious, tiresome, unimaginative, uninspiring, uninteresting, unpalatable, vacant, vacuous, watery, weak, wishy-washy*, zero*

and was my use of the word. I see however, they chose to hyphenate the word here.

I got a chuckle out of the first link for milquetoast. I thought perhaps it was originally French and I was using the modified version, but it looks like it started out in English and was adapted with the French word for milk. So perhaps you have the wrong spelling? Just kidding. Milk toast doesn't sound like a French recipe, however.

But I thought I'd better check on the fact milque was French for milk since I had no idea. It was then I found out milque wasn't French for milk, but rather some made for cartoon English spelling

Sopping good.

Dear Word Detective: I came across the word "milquetoast" recently. I had heard the word numerous times and associated it with a person who was weak, ineffectual, etc. I had assumed that it was spelled "milktoast" and meant the milk-soaked bread given to invalids in Victorian novels. I was, therefore, surprised to see it spelled in such a way as to imply a French language connection. To the best of my recollection, "milque" is not French for "milk." Can you explain where I've gone wrong? -- April Q., via the internet.

Drat. I had hoped that I would never have to think about milktoast ever again, and now here I am writing about the stuff. I vividly remember being at a friend's house at breakfast time when I was about 12 and watching in amazement as he eagerly gobbled down what he called "milktoast." For the next two decades I thought this ghastly dish was merely an unpleasant aberration in his family, until I discovered that my wife Kathy was also raised on, and loves, milktoast. So far I've prevented her from actually making the stuff, but she still talks about it from time to time.

Milktoast, for the benefit of those lucky enough to be hearing of it for the first time, is diabolically simple to make. Basically, you take a slice of bread, toast it lightly, put it on a plate, butter it if you're really hard-core, and then pour warm milk over it. True thrill-seekers then sprinkle sugar on it. Although this concoction certainly sounds like something invented to torture the long-suffering British schoolboy, the Oxford English Dictionary maintains that the term "milk-toast" is an American creation, dating back to around 1855.

While milktoast may be a comfort food for many, and probably suitable fare for a teething infant or sickly child, it's hardly the breakfast of champions. In fact, "milksop" (a similar dish made with untoasted bread) has been used as a synonym for "wimp" or "coward" since Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in 1386. So in 1924, when H.T. Webster, a cartoonist for the old New York Herald Tribune, needed a name for a spineless, timid character, he gave the world Caspar Milquetoast. The strip proved so popular that the character's name, complete with its faux-fancy spelling, became a popular metaphor for "hopelessly timid wimp."

BTW, I don't mind corrections. I certainly don't want to be using words like cowtow and mute point for too long before someone corrects me.

 

[hgc]

You need to get out more.

Defined:
Milk toast

Milk toast

Milk toast

Recipes:
Milk toast

Milk toast

Milk toast

And finally, synonyms:
Milk toast

Did it ever dawn on you there might be more than one word for milquetoast? In fact, this definition for milquetoast, isn't even the one I was using.
I've never heard of Caspar Milquetoast, of if I have I've forgotten the character. I was not referring to a timid, meek, or unassertive person. I was referring to bland, gutless, nothing of substance, milk toast news. On the last link for milk toast, the thesaurus lists two categories. Catergory 1 is timid, or milquetoast in your repertoire. The second is and was my use of the word. I see however, they chose to hyphenate the word here.

I got a chuckle out of the first link for milquetoast. I thought perhaps it was originally French and I was using the modified version, but it looks like it started out in English and was adapted with the French word for milk. So perhaps you have the wrong spelling? Just kidding. Milk toast doesn't sound like a French recipe, however.

But I thought I'd better check on the fact milque was French for milk since I had no idea. It was then I found out milque wasn't French for milk, but rather some made for cartoon English spelling


BTW, I don't mind corrections. I certainly don't want to be using words like cowtow and mute point for too long before someone corrects me.

Let's see, of the 3 definitions of milk toast you linked, 2 are from the sources that define it as a food preperation. The 3rd is from Urban Dictionary, a user-edited dictionary where people similarly unfamiliar with spelling of milquetoast have spread incorrect information. I will be chastised when you can cite for me a use of "milktoast," "milk toast" or "milk-toast" do describe a person's character, or making any other anthropomorphic reference, prior to the time that H.T. Webster gave the language the gift of milquetoast.

 

[frank462]

Hi skeptigirl & hgc,
This disagreement has really turned serious.
I suggest you settle it once and for all.

 

[Lurker]

Um, I really don't want to post twice on the same misspelling and thus appear excessively pedantic, but the word is milquetoast.

Damn pedant!

 

[Lurker]

HGC is correct and skeptigirl is wrong. I am a lover of the English language and am 100% sure that HGC is correct. Skeptigirl, don't fight it, just learn.

My pet peeve is people who use "loose" for "lose". Oh the horror!

Lurker

 

[Darth Rotor]

You need to get out more.
Defined:
Milk toast

Milk toast

Milk toast

Recipes:
Milk toast

Milk toast

Milk toast

And finally, synonyms:
Milk toast

Did it ever dawn on you there might be more than one word for milquetoast? In fact, this definition for milquetoast, isn't even the one I was using.
I've never heard of Caspar Milquetoast, of if I have I've forgotten the character. I was not referring to a timid, meek, or unassertive person. I was referring to bland, gutless, nothing of substance, milk toast news. On the last link for milk toast, the thesaurus lists two categories. Catergory 1 is timid, or milquetoast in your repertoire. The second is and was my use of the word. I see however, they chose to hyphenate the word here.

In the interest of wordsmithery in general, vapid might have been a better choice, and this bloody conflict avoided. That said, this critique is 20/20 hind sight. (The excellent vision of a deer.)

DR

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Let's see, of the 3 definitions of milk toast you linked, 2 are from the sources that define it as a food preperation. The 3rd is from Urban Dictionary, a user-edited dictionary where people similarly unfamiliar with spelling of milquetoast have spread incorrect information. I will be chastised when you can cite for me a use of "milktoast," "milk toast" or "milk-toast" do describe a person's character, or making any other anthropomorphic reference, prior to the time that H.T. Webster gave the language the gift of milquetoast.

The links were just showing the fact the spelling is common. But if you want to argue that milk toast is not the same as milquetoast, then the links to definitions and synonyms supports either word being used.

I didn't think the usage was an issue. I just noticed and then pointed out that the character, Milquetoast, was not quite synonymous with the way I used the word.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

HGC is correct and skeptigirl is wrong. I am a lover of the English language and am 100% sure that HGC is correct. Skeptigirl, don't fight it, just learn.

My pet peeve is people who use "loose" for "lose". Oh the horror!

Lurker

How can I be wrong? I posted link after link showing both spellings were used, including as a metaphor.

You guys may not like the fact both spellings are used, but they are. And milk toast is bland so I don't even need evidence it is used as I used it since I could have used it as a metaphor, no synonyms or definitions required.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

In the interest of wordsmithery in general, vapid might have been a better choice, and this bloody conflict avoided. That said, this critique is 20/20 hind sight. (The excellent vision of a deer.)

DR

I preferred the word milk toast how and where I used it. I had not heard of vapid until I looked at the link so others might not know that word either.

I'll admit error when there is error, but just because someone does or doesn't put a 'u' in behavior or an 'a' in pediatric or spells skeptic, sceptic does not make it erroneous.

 

[andyandy]

this is the silliest derail ever

 

[hgc]

this is the silliest derail ever

Totally agree. But as skeptigirl will remain steadfast in error, I will bother this thread no more with my end of silliness.

 

[Tailgater]

3. milk toast 3 up, 28 down

just semen on toast...

mmmmm boy make me some milk toast ;0)

I'm gonna go with Skeptigirl on this one, because I've already learned more than I need about milk toast.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

I'm going with the evidence. Argument by authority isn't cutting it.

 

[skeptifem]

btw, i prefered your previous avator - slightly wasted, but strangely attractive heroine chic-computer anime beats scary looking evil dude anyday

lol its changed again

 

[joe1347]

Where's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart?

 

[Piggy]

In all seriousness, The News Hour is well worth the time. I'm not a TV watcher, don't even have cable (tried it, not worth the money), but on days when I get home in time from work, I catch Jim Lehrer and company. If I'm cooking supper, I turn it up real loud (my TV is in the back room w/ my stereo, guitars, and books, not in the front room) and listen.

It's not my sole source of news by any means. In fact, if I'm interested in a topic, I never use just one source -- I take the time to "triangulate" by reading several sources. But in doing so, I've found that The News Hour is the best there is on TV, hands down. In fact, it's the only regular TV news worth watching.

Frontline is also excellent, but that's a special report show, not a daily news show.