“Now, Senator McCain suggests that somehow . . . I’m green behind the ears.”
—Barack Obama, during the October 7, 2008 Presidential debate
I would like to remind our readers that “Green behind the ears” was an artificial
conflation (i.e. one that was not overheard in actual conversation) posted on this website long
before Barack Obama announced his presidential campaign. Senator Obama’s usage of the phrase
can therefore be interpreted as nothing less than a full-fledged endorsement of
www.conflations.com.
For the record, the root expressions for this conflation are “Wet behind the ears” and
“Green”. The latter is often confused with “Green about the gills”,
which actually refers to looking ill, and has nothing to do with naïveté.