October surprise (ok-TOH-buhr suhr-PRYZ) noun

A last minute surprise, especially one orchestrated by a candidate to influence an election.

[The US presidential elections take place on the first Tuesday in November. The idea of an October surprise stems from the belief that a significant event taking place just before the election would influence the voters and change the result. The term originated in the 1980 US presidential elections. US embassy personnel were held hostage in Tehran, leading to speculation that the incumbent president would secure their release just before the election, in order to boost his prospects for re-election.]

How ironic is that?

So here’s a brand new (borrowed, as always) token of my distraction: Euphemism Generator.

edited 10/26/04….
How is this for a horoscope!
ARIES: I have a good imagination, but it’s difficult for me to wrap my mind around the possibility that anyone besides a white Christian fundamentalist millionaire is planning to vote for George W. Bush in the upcoming election. The man is not only a menace to the environment, women’s rights, healthcare, the economy, science, and the English language, but is also fighting terrorism in all the wrong ways. Still, I refuse to detest him. On the contrary, I send him my blessings. Likewise, though I’m pained by readers who enjoy my horoscopes yet support Bush, I love them just the same. It’s very important for you to apply my approach in the coming weeks, Aries. Do not, under any circumstances, revile the people you disagree with. Keep in mind Booker T. Washington’s view: “I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him.”

freewillastrology

One Response to “A.Word.A.Day–October surprise”

1. Barnacl Frumpasz Says:
   November 3rd, 2004 at 1:25 pm

   Here’s the deal. I am as liberal a Dem as one can be; Dems consider me radical. But, I didn’t vote. Reason being: Kerry had little chance of losing my NY. But I also had the uneasy notion that Bush would never let himself lose this election. He simply couldn’t. He’s a dictator who has formed a totalitarian democracy around his father’s people from the 80’s. They’ve been planning this sort of siege for 20 f@#$%n’ years. So the answer is (and this is as an Aries in response to Brezny’s Freewillastrology, which has guided me in the past during some of my hardest times) we need to organize like them. Peaceful people need to learn how to be militant in order to stop the militantism of this regime. An Iranian friend of mine said that, as far as he was concerned, this regime is the scariest the world has seen since the Third Reich. Any takers?

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