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The Iconoclast
Wednesday, 31 January 2007
Re: class

The word put to good use here:

January 31, 2007 -- A sniveling, cop-killing thug feebly responded to his death sentence yesterday by sticking his tongue out at the widow of one of two hero NYPD cops he killed in an undercover gun buy.

After the jury foreman informed Ronell Wilson of his fate, the killer rolled his eyes in disgust and turned toward Detective James Nemorin's widow to make the ugly gesture.

"He's an unrepentant punk to the end. He has absolutely no remorse whatsoever," said Derek Williams, a cousin of the other slain detective, Rodney Andrews.

"If he has a speck of class, you know what he'll do before he goes to bed tonight - he'll hang himself with his bedsheet."

Posted on 7:47 AM by Robert Bove
Comments
31 Jan 2007
Send an emailHugh Fitzgerald
"Speck of class" A "speck of class"? A "speck of dust" but a "touch of class."

31 Jan 2007
Mary Jackson
A Touch of Class, starring Glenda Jackson (no relation) as a funny, feisty Englishwoman and George Segal as an American with back problems, is one of those films that starts well but goes off at the end.

But "touch" wouldn't be right in this context, because there is a silent "even" or "the slightest" before "speck". "Ounce" would be better.

I can't even remember the end of that film - it really goes off when she goes all mushy.

31 Jan 2007
Robert Bove
Even an ounce would be too much. But coming from an American speaker, and a cop, "millegram" wouldn't do. No, it's got to be speck. (Perhaps it's an unconscious law-enforcement allusion to Richard Speck.)