There's a pun in Obama's recent speech....

[nancylebov]

It includes an historic commitment to comprehensive health care reform - a down-payment on the principle that we must have quality, affordable health care for every American.

I'm not sure that anyone else noticed it.

Comments

[siderea]

Interesting.

[nitebytes.livejournal.com]

I must be having a blonde day. I still don't see it :(

[avram]

I'm not seeing it either.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

principle (of a loan)/principle (rule for living)

[madfilkentist]

Oh, of course.

Your original phrasing reminds me of the time I saw the name Liapunov (a Russian composer) and said to a friend, "There's a pun in his name." I obstinately refused to explain further, driving him crazy.

There is, of course, a PUN in LiaPUNov.

[lpetrazickis.livejournal.com]

Oh. Oh! That's a very nice double entendre emphasis for a metaphor.

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

The body of a loan is "principal", not "principle", so it's a pun across homophones.

(I spend far too much of my day thinking about the implications of "principal" trading, so I'm very sensitized to its spelling.)

[madfilkentist]

Does it have anything to do with a government's continuing to make "down payments" while plummeting into insolvency?

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Took me a moment to get that one-- not bad.

I'm worried about the money being there, too. (No pun, unless the universe happened to hand one to me.)

[avram]

Hey, the government can print more money. The question's not Is the money there? but rather Will the money be worth anything?