SPOILER WARNING-
OPTIMUS PRIME DIES. AND THEN HE IS MAGICALLY RESURRECTED.
I didn’t have any new insights into the healthcare debate, so I thought I’d bitch about the word ‘cheesy’ instead.
“Cheesy.”
I don’t object to all uses of this term, certainly not the ones that are actually listed on dictionary.com:
“–adjective, chees⋅i⋅er, chees⋅i⋅est.
1. of or like cheese: a cheesy aroma; a cheesy taste.
2. Slang. inferior or cheap; chintzy: The movie’s special effects are cheesy and unconvincing. “
Nor do I mind so much when people describe failed melodrama as ‘cheesy.’ I find unsuccessful attempts to move me a lot more uncomfortable than crummy fx. (Like, um…in TRANSFORMERS-REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, the CG was state of the art but Optimus Prime’s touching death scene made me want to throw up and die, because nothing Michael Bay can do will ever make me care about Optimus Prime…I wouldn’t personally use the word ‘cheesy’ for that, I’d probably go with some variation of ‘retarded’ but I don’t think ‘cheesy’ would be totally misapplied either.) What I really dislike is when people apply it to things they ACTUALLY find emotionally affecting.
As in “I love Lord of the Rings even though it’s so cheesy.”
Which, as far as I can tell, means “I am slightly ashamed to admit that I enjoy Lord of the Rings more than The Great Gatsby, even though I know that Gatsby is high art and LOTR is for kids.”
Well, screw that. If you prefer LOTR to Gatsby, don’t make excuses for yourself. You’re right and F. Scott Fitzgerald is wrong.
LOL, I think you are onto something. It fits a lot of what you see critics write.
Steve
Amen, brother. I assume that the fear of cheese is some sort of post-modern reaction to having positive emotions. I suspect the fear is not that they think they should prefer F. Scott but rather Jonathan Lethem or J.G. Ballard (if you can remember that far back)
See also
Now, Read it Again
Like old friends and favorite haunts, some books reward revisiting.
I wonder if the slang definition of “cheesy” is related to or derived from cheese cloth.
But then again, I often wonder about things like that…
;-D
A good cheese is far from “cheesy” in the colloquial sense of the word.
(hmm, where is my comment? Let’s try again)
A good dictionary (the OED, or just the American Heritage) and some googling will tell you that this is most likely a reversal usage from an originally Urdu word picked up by the Indo-English (the English on the Indian subcontinent):
Word Origin & History
cheesy
“cheap, inferior,” 1896, from Urdu chiz “a thing,” picked up by British in India by 1818 and used in the sense of “a big thing.” By 1858, cheesy had evolved a slang meaning of “showy,” which led to the modern, ironic sense.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cheesy
The dictionaries confirm the etymology of the Urdu.
What I’m unclear about is what made you think of cheesecloth.
Heh…I always just figured it was because cheese straddles a fine line between tasty and disgusting.^_^
What I’m unclear about is what made you think of cheesecloth.
It comes from my instinctive tendency to employ free association, often completely disengaged from the local context.
For me, non sequitur is an interesting concept with which I like to play. ;-)
Free association is really useful when trying to look for connexions without really looking. Admirable. It’s about the only way to seek serendipity. How’s that going for you?
Try? There is no try. Do… or do not. — Yoda
Never whistle while you’re pissing. — Hagbard Celine