James Baquet

    Mark is chatting with his classmate Ming in the common room of their dorm.

    Mark: Hey, Ming. What’s up?

    Ming: Oh, man! You won’t believe what happened?

    Mark: What?

    Ming: I failed a silly pop quiz in English class.

    Mark: Your teacher gave you a quiz without warning, huh? That happens a lot.

    Ming: Oh, I don’t mind the surprise. What bothers me is that it should have been easy and I missed a bunch of questions!

    Mark: What was it about?

    Ming: Expressions using “man.”

    Mark: So you said, “Oh, man!” That’s one, right?

    Ming: Sure. I know that’s an expression of frustration or unhappiness. But the others were harder.

    Mark: Give me an example.

    Ming: For instance, what’s a “straight man?”

    Mark: A man who’s not gay?

    Ming: That’s what I thought! But my teacher said that in comedy, the straight man is the one who sets up the joke, and the “comic” says the funny line.

    Mark: Oh, sure. I knew that. What else?

    Ming: How about a “straw man?”

    Mark: That’s easy. What did you say?

    Ming: I said it’s something you put in the fields to scare away birds.

    Mark: That’s sort of true. But we call that a “scarecrow.” A straw man is a type of fallacy in arguing.

    Ming: How does it work?

    Mark: First, you make up a story about your opponent. Then you attack the story you made up — the “straw man” — instead of the real guy.

    Ming: I think I need an example.

    Mark: Okay. Mr. Smith is a science teacher. He wants to be principal of the school. So in a debate, his opponent says, “All science teachers are absent-minded.”

    Ming: Oh, yes, the stereotype of the “absent-minded professor.”

    Mark: Right. So, he says, since Smith is a science teacher, he must be absent-minded, so he would be a bad principal.

    Ming: So the “absent-minded professor” image of Smith is a straw man. His opponent attacks that, and not the real Smith.

    Mark: Exactly. What’s your next “man?”

    Ming: An “iron man.” I said it was a guy from a movie.

    Mark: Ming, you’re always so close! That movie character — and the comic book character before him — is based on a description of a man who is strong and can work hard all day long.

    Ming: Can you use it in a sentence?

    Mark: Yes. “I used to help my dad work on the farm, but I couldn’t work as hard as he did. He was a real iron man.”

    Ming: Okay, I’ve got it.

    Mark: Any more?

    Ming: Just a few, but I got them. A “stick man” is a simply drawn figure of a man. And an “action man” is one who takes charge of a situation.