J-Walk today explained the meaning of the term "post turtle":
'When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a post turtle... You know she didn't get up there by herself, she doesn't belong up there, she doesn't know what to do while she is up there, and you just wonder what kind of dumb ass put her up there to begin with.'The allusion in the example was of course to Sarah Palin, but when I searched Google Images looking for examples, most of the (many) images featured Barack Obama. So I plugged the term into Google Trends, which returned the graph on the bottom.
It appears the term first appeared in mid-2008 as anti-Obama humor, but after Palin's appearance it has been repurposed. I find it reassuring that the term didn't exist before the campaigns, so I'm hoping that "post turtles" are fictional entities; I lived in Texas for ten years and never saw one. It would be a cruel thing to do to a turtle (but it does make for a good analogy).
Stan -
ReplyDeleteThe first time I heard of a post turtle was this year, but it actually referred to Geo W Bush.
well, as long as it makes for a good analogy. . .
ReplyDeleteThe first time I heard of a post turtle was 2006 or 2007, and it referred to George W. Bush. I think Molly Ivins had something on it, but I'm not sure about that.
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