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# Posted 10:20 PM by Patrick Belton

NOTE TO SELF: Whenever I happen to win the Powerball, remind me not to leave a half million dollars in my car outside a strip club to get stolen....

UPDATE - which occasioned the following riposte from one of our friends,

Dear Patrick:

       Now that you have pledged NOT to leave half-a-million dollars of your Powerball winnings in a parked car in front of strip in order to be stolen, for what purpose WILL you leave half-a-million dollars in your Powerball winnings in a parked car in front of a strip club?

       All the best,

       Lester Czukor

       P.S. My favorite example of the above question is (supposedly) due to Abraham Lincoln. During the Civil War military officers from a variety of European countries came to America to observe the carnage. Most were deeply impressed and frightened as to what would happen if the United States were to use such power against others than their fellow citizens. A group of British officers had done the tour and were invitied to have lunch with the President at the White House (no record of whether they had to contribute to Lincoln's re-election campaign). Lincoln asked them whether they had any observations they wished to report to him. One of the British officers said: "In the British Army generals do not polish their own boots." To which the 16th President reponded: "Really? Whose boots DO British generals polish? In a similar vein there is the line attributed to, among others, Milton Friedman who once asked: "If the ends don't justify the means, what does justify the means."

Lester then poses the question about whether there is a technical name for the rhetorical devise there applied. Readers?

UPDATE 2: Answering my plea, Tom Comerford suggests "squelch," "similitude," or the plain-vanilla "retort" - but also suggests a contest for the best rhetorical coinage. What's more, he offers up another one:

A, who never went to Oxford on finding out that B is an Oxford grad, says to B: "You don't look like an Oxford man."

B replies: "Funny, neither do you."

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