Editing 1661: Podium

{{comic
| number    = 1661
| date      = March 28, 2016
| title     = Podium
| image     = podium.png
| titletext = BREAKING: Senator's bold pro-podium stand leads to primary challenge from prescriptivist base.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|More on the info in the title text and links to dictionaries should be real links. Please summarize this too long article.}}
The comic is playing on a stereotypical politician, without any real beliefs, here represented by [[Cueball]] without any features, but they want to appear to stand for something.  Alternatively, this is what might happen if someone like Cueball (or the strip's author Randall), who tend to think literally and who get interested in and distracted by tangents, were running.

Thus, Cueball picks up what is, in some circles, an argument: whether the standing desk used by public speakers should be called a "{{w|podium}}" or a "{{w|lectern}}." This argument is actually common among members of {{w|Toastmasters International}}, though it would usually not rise to the level of needing to be part of a national discourse.

Technically — or at least, in original use or etymologically — a podium is the stage or raised platform, which Cueball is standing on. Those on the "anti-podium" side state - correctly - that "podium" derives from the Greek word "pous/podos" meaning "foot" and thus denotes "a small platform for the conductor of an orchestra, for a public speaker, etc." (dictionary.com). This is the prescriptivist position - mentioned in the title text - indicating that dictionaries and similar publications prescribe how words should be used.  However common in teaching institutions with their power hierarchies, the very notion of dictionaries as prescriptive is wrong relative to traditional standards of lexicographers, e.g. to require use of a word in 12 fields of usage over 20 years before formal adoption, with certain exceptions.  In effect when dictionaries are backwards looking specialized sociology history documents, such "teaching" of prescriptivist positions becomes a mix of fraud and cultural insanity to demand false authority, noting the nature of politicians themselves to often act as false authorities.  

The literal distinction between podium and lectern (or the meaning of "this thing") is not obvious from context, when the meaning of ''podium'' has drifted in common use to refer to the small standing desk the speaker stands behind, puts papers on, etc. — i.e. the lectern. This is the descriptivist view that so many people "misuse" the word that "podium" now can validly refer to the small standing desk behind which speakers often stand. Dictionary.com lists "lectern" as definition #3 for "podium."

Sometimes, [http://www.platformgiant.com/podium-vs-lectern people care about this]. The fact is, though the etymological definition is clear (the lectern is the desk that stands on the podium), and the difference might be important if you were setting up an auditorium, in common usage it really doesn't matter. If a public speaker is asked to step up to the podium, very few would quibble over the usage.

The idiomatic idea of "stepping up" to the podium could remain accurate even if one then uses a lectern, when the lectern is the reading desk placed on the elevated podium.  That idiom shifts to entirely metaphorical when a lectern in many classrooms or meeting rooms is at floor level.  With a shift towards virtual meeting spaces, and meeting rooms with computer driven audio-visual systems, the idea of both podiums as physical platforms, and lecterns as desks for reading matter when they're increasingly AV control centers, are changing.  Such change further upends the idea of dictionaries as prescriptivist, given the nature of language to develop new words or alter meanings of necessity, versus sloppy common usage.

The title text implies that Cueball moves ahead with his promised research and ends up coming out on the side of calling it a podium.  This leads to the people who follow the prescriptivist position to organize and put forward a political candidate to challenge Cueball in the {{w|primaries}}.  In the U.S., the primaries are used to select a single candidate from a particular party to represent that party at final election (whether national or on a state level).

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is speaking at a lectern standing on a podium.]
:Cueball: The American people are tired of politics as usual.
:Cueball: They're tired of-
:Cueball: Okay, brief tangent: is this thing a podium or a lectern? People say "podium" is wrong, but I also see it used that way in pretty formal contexts. Is usage just changing?
:Cueball: If elected, I will get to the bottom of this for once and for all.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Language]]