Here at Language Log Plaza, we’ve been following the linguistic angles of the Gov. Mark Sanford story ever since he mysteriously went “out of pocket.” (See: “Out of pocket,” “The biggest self of self is indeed self,” “Doing stupid,” and “If I wanted to know that I knew that I knew.”) But the lasting contribution of the Sanford saga to the English language may very well be the sudden spawning of a political euphemism: “hiking the Appalachian trail.
— Language Log » Birth of a euphemism: “Hiking the Appalachian trail”
