Urbane Legends

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<span style='font-family:comic sans ms'>Urbane Legends
By Terence P. Jeffrey
Creators.com | May 9, 2003

When Saddam Hussein sidekick Tariq Aziz was captured recently, a casual reader scanning the coverage could be forgiven for mistaking the English word &quot;urbane&quot ; for the title of Aziz's Iraqi government job.

Almost everywhere you saw Aziz's name, the word &quot;urbane&quot ; was nearby.

The Washington Post and the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News independently called him Iraq's &quot;urbane former deputy prime minister.&quot; The Los Angeles Times noted his &quot;urbane manner and effectiveness as a speaker.&quot; Agence France Presse called him &quot;the urbane face and international voice of Iraq under Saddam Hussein&quot;; the Sunday London Telegraph, &quot;the urbane public face of the Saddam regime.&quot;

Urbane may not have been his actual job title, but clearly Aziz was Saddam Hussein's official urbane person.

So, what does &quot;urbane&quot ; mean? After seeing the word used so frequently to describe a functionary of the Iraqi dictatorship, I thought I'd better double check.

Urbane, says Webster's, means &quot;polite and courteous in a smooth, polished way; refined.&quot;
So, Aziz was the &quot;polite and courteous&quot; -- no, &quot;refined&quo t; -- spokesman for a murderous tyrant. Or so we were informed by numerous news organizations.

Did all the reporters and commentators who called Aziz &quot;urbane&quot ; have first-hand experience of his notorious politeness and courtesy? Had he held open a door for them? Asked them politely to pass the peas? </span>

[Charie]

To be witty, sophisticated, and above all, urbane (suave has fallen into disfavor) is the highest accolade that can be bestowed by the press upon one. And, for some reason, it usually applies only to people who are not Americans (we, of the conservative persuasion are too rough-hewn. i.e. cowboys) or those Americans of the intelligentsia or foreign service.

To those of the press who hang out at the &quot;Pen and Pencil&quot; swill beer and bar whiskey and smoke Marlboros, one would imagine it's an urge to raise oneself from the hoi polloi and join those witty, sophisticated and urbane gentlefolk who populate The New Yorker and Gentleman's Quarterly.

Whether, dictator, despot, or despoiler of women those who are URBANE will always get a pass from the press. A press pass, as it were.