Slam Dunks and No-Brainers

Language in Your Life, the Media, Business, Politics, and, Like, Whatever

Nonfiction, Entertainment, Humour & Comedy, Jokes & Riddles, Reference & Language, Language Arts, Linguistics, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Cultural Studies, Popular Culture
Cover of the book Slam Dunks and No-Brainers by Leslie Savan, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
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Author: Leslie Savan ISBN: 9780307264329
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Publication: October 4, 2005
Imprint: Vintage Language: English
Author: Leslie Savan
ISBN: 9780307264329
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication: October 4, 2005
Imprint: Vintage
Language: English

In this marvelously original book, three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Leslie Savan offers fascinating insights into why we’re all talking the talk—Duh; Bring it on!; Bling; Whatever!—and what this reveals about America today. Savan traces the paths that phrases like these travel from obscure slang to pop stardom, selling everything from cars (ads for VWs, Mitsubishis, and Mercurys all pitch them as “no-brainer”s) to wars (finding WMD in Iraq was to be a “slam dunk”). Real people create these catchy phrases, but once media, politics, and businesses broadcast them, they burst out of our mouths as celebrity words, newly glamorous and powerful. Witty, fun, and full of thought-provoking stories about the origins of popular expressions, Slam Dunks and No-Brainers is for everyone who loves the mysteries of language.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In this marvelously original book, three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Leslie Savan offers fascinating insights into why we’re all talking the talk—Duh; Bring it on!; Bling; Whatever!—and what this reveals about America today. Savan traces the paths that phrases like these travel from obscure slang to pop stardom, selling everything from cars (ads for VWs, Mitsubishis, and Mercurys all pitch them as “no-brainer”s) to wars (finding WMD in Iraq was to be a “slam dunk”). Real people create these catchy phrases, but once media, politics, and businesses broadcast them, they burst out of our mouths as celebrity words, newly glamorous and powerful. Witty, fun, and full of thought-provoking stories about the origins of popular expressions, Slam Dunks and No-Brainers is for everyone who loves the mysteries of language.

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