Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: Going O.J.

Nel pessimo film "TheOne" per dire che il personaggio sta fuggendo  si dice
:" He's going O.J.  .
Se lo sono inventato gli sceneggiatori oppure è diventato comune dirlo ?
TIA
Sal

 wrote in message
news:asa9hn$pl4rj$1...@ID-51356.news.dfncis.de...

OJ = OJ Simpson, il giocatore americano che fu processato per aver ucciso la
moglie.  Era un processo molto famoso.  L'esempio qui si riferisce alla sua
fuga (attentata) dalla polizia.  Qualche volta, un 'atto' viene chiamato
come un'altro famoso atto simile.  Ma devo dire che normalmente, il verbo
usato è "do".  Nell'esempio qui si può usare "He's doing an OJ" o "He's
going to do an OJ".
("He's going OJ" è giusto ma meno comune)
Per spiegare meglio - se si possa usare questa struttura in italiano,
andrebbe cosi:
Antonio: "Mario sta facendo tanti soldi con la sua nuova compagnia."
Giovanni: "Sapevi che oggigiorno lui comincia ad interessarsi della
politica?"
Antonio: "Eh eh!  Forse lui farà "un Berlusconi" presto!"
Probabilmente, questa frase non ha senso in italiano, ma questa è la
traduzione esatta in inglese.  E' usato solo con una vicenda molto famosa,
quando la persona che parla è sicura che l'altra persona lo capirà.  "To do"
è piu comune di "to go".  Quando si usa "go", non si usa l'articolo - He's
going OJ / He's doing an OJ.
Jo@nna


What about "going postal"? I've always heard of people going postal,
never 'doing a postal'
+--
I know you can't speak, I know you can't sign
So cry right here on the dotted line

 never 'doing a postal'
I actually have no idea what 'going postal' means! :-o  Is it American
English?  Do you mean a package or something "It's going postal" (i.e. not
by some other means)!
Whatever it means, it's a totally different structure from the example
discussed here, which is about using a famous person's name to depict a
similar event.  Or is there some famous guy called 'postal' that I do not
know about?...:-p
I never said that everything that could be used with the verb "to do" could
equally be used with "to go"!
Jo@nna

 I actually have no idea what 'going postal' means! 
I'd never heard of it either, but I found it at: 
http://www.njnsolutions.org/Cool/Humor/techglossary.html
GOING POSTAL - Euphemism for being totally stressed out, for losing it.
Makes reference to the unfortunate track record of postal employees who
have snapped and gone on shooting rampages.
On the same page, I particularly liked:
SEAGULL MANAGER - A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on
everything, and then leaves.
-- 
Mary

 everything, and then leaves.
Ha ha!  I like it too!  I start a new job tomorrow so I'm sure it will come
in useful, even if my co-workers have no idea what I'm rambling about!
Jo@nna

similar event.
I may be wrong, but 'going OJ' and 'going postal' seem to share exactly
the same structure to me; both are named after someone/something that
made them popular. 
There are some common expressions that use 'to go' in a similar way, 
like going mad, going ape going ballistic, and possibly mor


 like going mad, going ape going ballistic, and possibly mor
Like I said in the earlier post, the 'going' structure (used with a famous
person / event that is) is not one I find very common.  I wouldn't therefore
consider "going ballistic" etc the same type of structure at all.  For one
thing, you'll notice that 'ape', 'ballistic' etc are all *adjectives*.  We
are referring here to nouns (people events etc are nouns, aren't they?)
Joanna