If Eskimos have N words for snow, X surely have Y words for Z.I've been looking for the Civil War equivalent but have so far found only no-assembly-required cliche frames for lazy historians:
In space, no one can hear you X.
X is the new Y.
By the end of 1863 it was clear to Lincoln that in Grant he had found the aggressive commander he had been seeking since the beginning of the war.Maybe I'm wrong about some assembly being required. For instance, the first quote, above, is followed by "From this point until the end of the war, the president would no longer actively manage military matters." That's definitely an articulated cliche that depends on the first cliche to perform "set up." The second quote in the list also triggers the same cliche: "Thereafter, Lincoln took a less direct role in military planning..." Lincoln taking his hands off the war, is as fanciful as the number of Eskimo words for snow, of course.
Above all, he always sought a general, no matter what his politics, who would fight. He found such a general in Ulysses S. Grant, to whom he gave overall command in 1864.
Lincoln also struggled to find a commander who would attack the Confederates aggressively. In Ulysses S. Grant, the president found his man.
Abraham Lincoln had finally found the general he had been looking for.
The other writers in this list fail to unpack their cliches after Lincoln Finds a General. They could be lazier even than pop journalists; or they could be in an awful hurry to tell the rest of the story.
Let's make a list. Send your discoveries to drotov@georgebmcclellan.org. Articulated cliche frames with some assembly required are preferred, but no cliche will go unremarked.
