I haven’t been doing these* for a while now, but this one is to good to pass up:
“Yes, my device [the Rape-aXe]** may sound medieval, but it’s for a medieval deed that has been around for decades.”
–Dr. Sonnet Ehlers, a South African physician distributing barbed anti-rape condoms at the World Cup, as reported by Fox News, among others.
I’m not sure which is worse–using the word “medieval” to describe something that I’m pretty sure has been around since before humans were humans*** or following it by describing it as a problem that’s been with us for decades. It’s like she gets it wrong coming and going.
Or maybe she is just using a technically correct if unhelpful description. Things that happened centuries and millennia ago did, I suppose, technically also happen decades ago. Perhaps she tells friends “I’ll meet you for dinner in about ten million eight-hundred thousand milliseconds” all the time.
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*That is, posts in which I make fun of the way people use the word “medieval”.
**A female condom with barbs on the inside meant to deter rapists.
***I mean, ducks do it a lot, apparently.