[WikiEN-l] Jayjg is not AWOL

[Charlotte Webb]

On 8/28/07, John Lee <johnleemk at gmail.com> wrote:
> ...is there any assurance that how we deal with false whistle-blowers
> will not be the same way we deal with real ones?

We'd need some way to actually tell the difference. Obviously,
different variations will arise, each with a proper metaphor, whether
it be a referee, a freight train, a tea-kettle, the Keystone Cops, or
the familiar "car window not all the way up" sound. Easy enough for
the human ear to distinguish, but not so for the eye.

[WHISTLE BLOWING]
CAPTAIN: What you say?

One can whistle the same note for several paragraphs and it may never
become apparent whether the "human at the other end" is laughing, or
crying, or cursing, or humming, or (coincidentally) whistling while
writing the stuff. They could be horribly off-key too, but we wouldn't
know.

—C.W.