Using subtle diplome?

Torsten · Sat Jun 03, 2006 8:49 am *Using subtle diplome?*

Hi, what do you think do the following two lines mean:

Using subtle diplome
To get what she wants

As I understand it, the person uses a diplomatic approach to achieve her goals. I mean, what other meaning could diplome have in that context?
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Yankee · Sat Jun 03, 2006 9:06 am *Using subtle diplome?*

Hi Torsten

Have you been listening to music again? Laughing

I myself have never used the word "diplome" in English, but in the context I also might understand it basically as "diplomacy".

Without further context, I'll also venture a second possible interpretation: "subtle diplome" could mean "deviously persuasive tactics" Laughing

Amy
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Amy
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Torsten · Sat Jun 03, 2006 9:22 am *God's got a sick sense of humour*

Yes songs exactly, Amy. Some of the songs I listen to for the music, some for the lyrics and some for both -- the music as well as the lyrics.
I've just taken a look at the lyrics of Blasphemous Rumours by Depeche Mode and although I might have heard that song a hundred times before it wasn't until I looked at the lyrics that I was able to make out the line god's got a sick sense of humour.
By the way, I read that when that song came out the Pope strongly condemned it because of its message...
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Yankee · Sat Jun 03, 2006 10:03 am *Using subtle diplome?*

Hi Torsten

I can well imagine that the Pope might not be terribly impressed with that particular line. Shocked

Speaking of misheard lyrics, I remember being out for a drive one day with my Dad (years and years and years ago - practically the Stone Age Laughing

) and a song by Van McCoy was on the radio. When the chorus came, my Dad suddenly burst into song and sang along: "Do the hot dog!"

I laughed myself silly when he did that. As a young person, I was much better acquainted with the then "new" teenage dances and I knew that it was "the hustle" that was being sung about --- and not "hot dogs". Laughing

Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

Torsten · Sat Jun 03, 2006 10:14 am *Hustle vs. hot dog*

Hi Amy,

Could you please explain what exactly your father had mixed up? Hustle with hot dog?

Speaking of lyrics, does anyone know why U2 start their song Vertico by counting Unos, dos, tres, catorce? I mean, catorce means, fourteen, doesn't it? So, in their song they skip quite some numbers and count to fourteen instead of four. Is there any particular meaning attached to this? Maybe, Conchita has any idea?
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Yankee · Sat Jun 03, 2006 10:28 am *Using subtle diplome?*

Yes, Torsten, exactly. My Dad thought they were singing the word "hotdog", but in the actual lyrics it's "hustle". Laughing

"Hustle" was quite easy for a young person to understand correctly, but more difficult for an "old" guy like my Dad. He wasn't really all that old at the time, just too far past his teenage years to "hear" lyrics properly. Laughing

Amy
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Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

Conchita · Sat Jun 03, 2006 21:03 pm *U dos*

Jamie (K) · Sun Jun 04, 2006 0:49 am *Using subtle diplome?*

Amy, in the disco era one day I was driving a customized van from the outfitter in Detroit to a dealer in Madison, Wisconsin, and in the 12 hours on the interstate highway on that hot summer day, with the windows wide open, I heard that song Do the Hustle about 50 million times. I also thought they were saying, "Do the hotdog!", or more accurately, "Do da hotdog!" And I had perfect adolescent hearing!

(Boy, that was a horrible time for music!)

Torsten, I don't think that song was saying "subtle diplome", since the word "diplome" doesn't seem to exist in English. More likely, they were saying subtle aplomb.

Conchita

Yankee · Sun Jun 04, 2006 9:35 am *Using subtle diplome?*

Hi Conchita

You're right! Google finds lyrics to the same song in two completely different versions! Shocked

I can't imagine "A girl's entitled to flaunt " being misheard as "using subtle diplome". Can you?

Or do the Sugababes have serious speech impediments? Laughing

Amy
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Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

crazieynsf · Fri Jun 16, 2006 22:22 pm *Using subtle diplome?*

an explaination of the sugababes lyrics...the original lyrics were written with the part 'a girls entitled to flaunt', and that's how the song was published by the publishing company....but somewhere between the time of the publishing and the disc being released, keisha of the 'babes recorded the 'using subtle diplome' bit...funny though the disc booklet has the lyrics printed with the flaunt bit, and once the song was released as a single and re-recorded with new member amelle's vocals, it used the diplome line, but now a new remix of the song has been released and that version actually uses the original lyrics...weird and useless info. i know

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