Re: Receipts

From	Hibou <vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid>
Newsgroups	alt.usage.english, alt.english.usage
Subject	Re: Receipts
Date	2026-07-02 06:11 +0100
Message-ID	<nama8hF2f76U1@mid.individual.net> (permalink)
References	(5 earlier) <111qgln$3eu94$1@dont-email.me> <naccbnFd0bvU1@mid.individual.net> <mn.e2a67ea602f1d15c.127094@snitoo> <najpr7FjuhuU1@mid.individual.net> <ajlb4l53ujo58f7tjbbmmf42i9q37idp85@4ax.com>

Cross-posted to 2 groups.

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Le 02/07/2026 à 04:16, Steve Hayes a écrit :
> Hibou wrote:
>>
>> In this case the statement was a strong one, about armed forces
>> deliberately choosing children as targets. It needed no decoration.
>> Trying to enliven it with non-standard words risks distracting readers
>> and weakening it. If one has evoked an image of soldiers shooting
>> children, does it help to overlay that with a picture of a stack of
>> receipts?
> 
> I suppose that depends on who the writer imagines the readers will be.
> I take it that the writer is a journalist, and assumes that the
> readers, or most of them, will be familiar with the idiom.
> 
> The problem that occurs to me is that apparently most of those who are
> familiar with the idiom are in the US, but it is the US media that
> have done most to hide the events referred to, so that those most
> familiar with the facts would find the idiom unfamiliar, and those
> familiar with the idiom would find the facts incredible.

An unfamiliar metaphor can work well, and is probably (always?) a live 
one. A familiar one may be worn out, dead or moribund, but there may 
still be reason to use it. It may, for example, have become a common or 
the usual way to say something (brand new¹, falling in love, cut 
corners…) and quite unremarkable.

¹Glowing new, as if fresh from the furnace (OED: "New bodyes, new 
myndes, … and all thinges new, brande new" - Foxe, 1570). 'Neuf/neuve' 
en français.

Thread

Receipts Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2026-06-26 17:00 +0200
  Re: Receipts athel.cb@gmail.com <user12588@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-06-26 15:01 +0000
    Re: Receipts Hibou <vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid> - 2026-06-26 19:17 +0100
      Re: Receipts Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2026-06-27 05:02 +0200
        Re: Receipts The True Melissa <thetruemelissa@gmail.com> - 2026-06-27 06:10 -0400
          Re: Receipts Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2026-06-28 03:29 +0200
          Re: Receipts Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2026-06-29 02:17 -0300
      Re: Receipts Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org> - 2026-06-27 15:47 +1000
        Re: Receipts Hibou <vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid> - 2026-06-27 11:15 +0100
          Re: Receipts nospam@de-ster.demon.nl (J. J. Lodder) - 2026-06-27 13:25 +0200
          Re: Receipts Aidan Kehoe <kehoea@parhasard.net> - 2026-06-28 08:29 +0100
            Re: Receipts Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2026-06-28 17:09 +0200
        Re: Receipts "s|b" <me@privacy.invalid> - 2026-06-27 13:49 +0200
        Re: Receipts Tony Cooper <tonycooper214@gmail.com> - 2026-06-27 11:30 -0400
          Re: Receipts richard@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Richard Tobin) - 2026-06-27 18:49 +0000
            Re: Receipts liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid (Liz Tuddenham) - 2026-06-27 21:58 +0100
            Re: Receipts Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org> - 2026-06-28 11:21 +1000
              Re: Receipts Hibou <vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid> - 2026-06-28 05:51 +0100
            Re: Receipts Ross Clark <benlizro@ihug.co.nz> - 2026-06-28 18:57 +1200
              Re: Receipts Hibou <vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid> - 2026-06-28 11:46 +0100
                Re: Receipts Snidely <snidely.too@gmail.com> - 2026-06-30 19:40 -0700
                Re: Receipts Hibou <vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid> - 2026-07-01 07:19 +0100
                Re: Receipts Snidely <snidely.too@gmail.com> - 2026-07-01 03:21 -0700
                Re: Receipts Hibou <vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid> - 2026-07-01 11:49 +0100
                Re: Receipts Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org> - 2026-07-01 21:16 +1000
                Re: Receipts athel.cb@gmail.com <user12588@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-07-01 12:57 +0000
                Re: Receipts Hibou <vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid> - 2026-07-01 15:40 +0100
                Re: Receipts Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org> - 2026-07-02 09:44 +1000
                Re: Receipts Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2026-07-02 05:16 +0200
                Re: Receipts Hibou <vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid> - 2026-07-02 06:11 +0100
                Re: Receipts Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2026-07-03 08:28 +0200
                Re: Receipts Hibou <vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid> - 2026-07-04 11:55 +0100
      Re: Receipts occam <occam@nowhere.nix> - 2026-06-27 14:22 +0200
        Re: Receipts Phil <phil@anonymous.invalid> - 2026-06-27 18:18 +0100
          Re: Receipts ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) - 2026-06-27 18:35 +0000
            Re: Receipts Tony Cooper <tonycooper214@gmail.com> - 2026-06-27 15:05 -0400
    Re: Receipts Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2026-06-27 04:44 +0200
      Re: Receipts nospam@de-ster.demon.nl (J. J. Lodder) - 2026-06-27 13:25 +0200
        Re: Receipts Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2026-06-28 03:39 +0200
          Re: Receipts nospam@de-ster.demon.nl (J. J. Lodder) - 2026-06-28 11:01 +0200
            Re: Receipts Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org> - 2026-06-28 21:21 +1000
            Re: Receipts "s|b" <me@privacy.invalid> - 2026-06-28 15:48 +0200
              Re: Receipts nospam@de-ster.demon.nl (J. J. Lodder) - 2026-06-28 21:32 +0200
                Re: Receipts "s|b" <me@privacy.invalid> - 2026-06-29 17:45 +0200
          Re: Receipts "s|b" <me@privacy.invalid> - 2026-06-28 15:42 +0200
  Re: Receipts "s|b" <me@privacy.invalid> - 2026-06-26 18:13 +0200
    Re: Receipts Tony Cooper <tonycooper214@gmail.com> - 2026-06-26 12:57 -0400
      Re: Receipts "s|b" <me@privacy.invalid> - 2026-06-27 13:40 +0200
        Re: Receipts Tony Cooper <tonycooper214@gmail.com> - 2026-06-27 11:01 -0400
          Re: Receipts Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2026-06-28 03:53 +0200
            Re: Receipts Tony Cooper <tonycooper214@gmail.com> - 2026-06-27 23:26 -0400
        Re: Receipts Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org> - 2026-06-28 11:37 +1000
          Re: Receipts Hibou <vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid> - 2026-06-28 05:51 +0100
          Re: Receipts nospam@de-ster.demon.nl (J. J. Lodder) - 2026-06-28 11:01 +0200
    Re: Receipts Hibou <vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid> - 2026-06-26 19:24 +0100
      Re: Receipts liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid (Liz Tuddenham) - 2026-06-27 12:23 +0100
      Re: Receipts "s|b" <me@privacy.invalid> - 2026-06-27 13:41 +0200
        Re: Receipts Hibou <vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid> - 2026-06-27 13:39 +0100
    Re: Receipts Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2026-06-27 05:04 +0200
  Re: Receipts Tony Cooper <tonycooper214@gmail.com> - 2026-06-26 12:46 -0400
    Re: Receipts Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2026-06-27 05:25 +0200
      Re: Receipts Tony Cooper <tonycooper214@gmail.com> - 2026-06-27 00:31 -0400
        Re: Receipts Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2026-06-27 19:00 +0200
          Re: Receipts The True Melissa <thetruemelissa@gmail.com> - 2026-06-27 13:16 -0400
            Re: Receipts "s|b" <me@privacy.invalid> - 2026-06-27 19:33 +0200
            Re: Receipts Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2026-06-28 04:09 +0200
              Re: Receipts Tony Cooper <tonycooper214@gmail.com> - 2026-06-27 23:25 -0400
          Re: Receipts Tony Cooper <tonycooper214@gmail.com> - 2026-06-27 14:51 -0400
      Re: Receipts "s|b" <me@privacy.invalid> - 2026-06-27 13:58 +0200
        Re: Receipts Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2026-06-28 04:16 +0200
          Re: Receipts "s|b" <me@privacy.invalid> - 2026-06-28 10:16 +0200
    Re: Receipts "s|b" <me@privacy.invalid> - 2026-06-27 13:31 +0200
  Re: Receipts <-- mis-dictation? cursed? "Mr. Man-wai Chang" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> - 2026-06-27 12:10 +0800
    Re: Receipts <-- mis-dictation? cursed? Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2026-06-27 19:05 +0200
      Re: Receipts <-- mis-dictation? cursed? Tony Cooper <tonycooper214@gmail.com> - 2026-06-27 15:01 -0400
        Re: Receipts <-- mis-dictation? cursed? "Mr. Man-wai Chang" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> - 2026-06-28 12:54 +0800
      Re: Receipts <-- mis-dictation? cursed? nospam@de-ster.demon.nl (J. J. Lodder) - 2026-06-27 23:10 +0200
        Re: Receipts <-- mis-dictation? cursed? Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2026-06-28 04:21 +0200
          Re: Receipts ... ignore threads? "Mr. Man-wai Chang" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> - 2026-06-28 12:53 +0800
          Re: Receipts <-- mis-dictation? cursed? occam <occam@nowhere.nix> - 2026-06-28 09:35 +0200
            Re: Receipts <-- mis-dictation? cursed? "Mr. Man-wai Chang" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> - 2026-06-28 18:19 +0800
              Re: Receipts <-- mis-dictation? cursed? Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org> - 2026-06-28 21:28 +1000
                Re: Receipts <-- mis-dictation? cursed? occam <occam@nowhere.nix> - 2026-06-29 08:16 +0200
                Re: Receipts <-- mis-dictation? cursed? "Mr. Man-wai Chang" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> - 2026-06-29 19:18 +0800
          Re: Receipts <-- mis-dictation? cursed? nospam@de-ster.demon.nl (J. J. Lodder) - 2026-06-28 11:01 +0200
        Re: Receipts ... forcing delta updates to old NNTP servers? "Mr. Man-wai Chang" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> - 2026-06-28 12:46 +0800
  Re: Receipts vs Magical Talisman??? "Mr. Man-wai Chang" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> - 2026-07-01 14:42 +0800

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