Date: Tue, 5 Aug 1997 13:56:07 EDT

From: Larry Horn LHORN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]YALEVM.CIS.YALE.EDU

Subject: HBO and TV



Re Barry's



"GARTH LIVE FROM CENTRAL PARK

Thursday, August 7, 8 PM ET/PT

HBO

IT'S NOT TV. IT'S HBO."



HBO is not tv?? What is it, a frog?



A common enough ploy, especially in advertising. From my collection (to

illustrate what I like to call metalinguistic negation):



It's not a car. It's a Volkswagen. (commercial and advertisement, 1980's)



Or, more ominously,



They weren't people, Sir. They were the enemy.

(Lt. William Calley, during court-martial for his participation in

My Lai massacre.)



--Larry