Tag: hyperbole

Candidates for public office either have an abundance of ego or none at all.  There's no middle ground because there really can't be.  The second option is almost universally preferable.  Your opponent will spend countless hours and dollars painting a caricature of you so distorted by the time they're done even your children won't recognize you.  If you can't ignore it, laugh it off and persevere you're going to drive yourself crazy.

Of course, there's always the first option.

Some candidates are just so freaking full of themselves that they don't even notice anyone or anything else around them.

You've met these guys.  They knock on your door and tell you how great they are, ignore the questions you ask them, can't seem to comprehend that you're not interested in what they're saying and then walk away with a booming "hey, thanks for your support!"

Big announcement time.  If her statement to the local paper yesterday is any indication, the Inflated Ego People of Pompousville have crowned a new queen... Democratic Representative Dian Slavens.

On January 1st the new Michigan House of Representatives took part in an official swearing in ceremony at the Capitol in Lansing.  That was a month ago, but apparently the adulation she received at the time wasn't enough.

Yesterday evening Representative Slavens held a party in her own honor at the Canton Public Library where she invited a group of special friends, family members and associates to join the general public to witness her take the oath again, in strictly ceremonial fashion.  

But why, Dian, why?  She answered that question to the local paper, the Mirror:

"It's an honor that I was chosen to be our community's voice in the State Capitol and it's only fitting that the community be included in this momentous event," Slavens said.

MOMENTOUS!  And here I was confused.  Her ceremonial swearing in, nay, her very presence was not just a distraction to the hard working library staff and the students and patrons who happened to be utilizing the facility during her to-do, they should have understood that they were in the presence of unadulterated greatness!

If "momentous" seems a peculiar adjective for this event that's because it is.  Sort of like pheasant hunting with a howitzer.  Here is how Dictionary.com defines the term...

momentous
adjective of very great significance; "deciding to drop the atom bomb was a very big decision"; "a momentous event"

Dropping the atom bomb and Dian Slavens getting sworn in as the Representative of Michigan's 21st House District.  Yep.  Two peas in a pod.  Lets just hope the latter isn't as destructive to Michigan's economy as the former was to Nagasaki's.

And while we wait for the answer, make sure you clear the way when you see Slavens walking down the hall.  Clearly there's too little room for you, her AND her ego.