An Antidote to What the Spin Doctors Ordered

Henry Beard, the co-founder of National Lampoon and Christopher Cerf, a writer, composer/lyricist, founding contributor to National Lampoon, creator of the PBS program "Between the Lions" are the co-authors of Spinglish: The Definitive Dictionary of Deliberately Deceptive Language (Blue Rider Press, 2015). They have fun with the words and phrases that are favorite euphemisms of politicians and salespeople -- a.k.a. "Spinglish."

"Spinglish" examples: a realtor saying "cozy" = tiny. "Faulkner-esque sentences" = LONG.

— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) June 15, 2015

.@chriscerf is teaching us "Spinglish" from the studio: pic.twitter.com/0zyIRl1Uog

— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) June 15, 2015

Just now on @BrianLehrer: Apple employees trained to say "as it turns out" instead of "unfortunately" when your hard drive fails. #spinglish

— Pam Terenzi (@PamTerenzi) June 15, 2015

Any time you can "obfuscate instead of lying" -- you should, says Henry Beard (with a wink).

— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) June 15, 2015