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joyapple



Joined: 21 Sep 2006
Posts: 24

PostPosted: Sat Oct 07, 2006 10:16 pm    Post subject: thank you Reply with quote

(Online therapy is dangerous, critics say. Quacks could set up shop and scam customers. [b]Discontents [/b]who are looking for a quick [b]fix [/b]could score drugs with a simple mouseclick. The entire mental health industry may degenerate into [b]a Geraldo Riverian mess[/b].)
What do "discontents", "fix", "a Geraldo Riverian mess" mean?
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Poisontipped



Joined: 08 Oct 2006
Posts: 28

PostPosted: Sun Oct 08, 2006 1:17 am    Post subject: Re: thank you Reply with quote

joyapple wrote:
(Online therapy is dangerous, critics say. Quacks could set up shop and scam customers. Discontents who are looking for a quick fix could score drugs with a simple mouseclick. The entire mental health industry may degenerate into a Geraldo Riverian mess.)
What do "discontents", "fix", "a Geraldo Riverian mess" mean?


Okay, Discontent basically means dis-satisfaction, or your unhappy with something. For example- If im discontent with your post, im unhappy with it, I dislike it etc etc. Its a negative word. In your context, it means people who are unhappy or dis-satisfied

"Quick Fix", in that specific context basically means, a short-term solution to the problem. For example- if I fly is bothering me, a "quick fix" to that would be to kill it.

No idea what "Gerlado Riverian mess" means, howeever it could possibly be some sort of a metaphor? If something is messy it is unclean.

Hope that helped you!
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CP



Joined: 12 Jun 2006
Posts: 2875
Location: California

PostPosted: Sun Oct 08, 2006 6:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Geraldo Rivera is an American television figure. He has been host of his own talk show host and of some "specials," and he has done some "in the streets" reporting. He likes to be called Geraldo, pronounced HerALLdo, although that's not his real name.

Geraldo has a mustache and an intense style, usually trying to build things up that need not be reported in the first place. Once he took a whole hour of live TV to open what he called a mobster's secret vault, and it turned out to be empty. Nevertheless, he speculated about what it might have held in the past and promised future adventures that, luckily, haven't occurred.

Once his obnoxious interviewing style inspired a man to break a chair over his head, breaking his nose and giving him his red badge of courage and tough-guy credibility -- in his mind, anyway.

So Geraldo Riverian (a funny term made up by that author, not a commony heard expression) must mean anything over-hyped and breathlessly pushed, but worthless or meaningless in fact.
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redset



Joined: 18 Mar 2006
Posts: 582
Location: England

PostPosted: Sun Oct 08, 2006 9:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

CP wrote:
Nevertheless, he speculated about what it might have held in the past and promised future adventures that, luckily, haven't occurred.


I love this.

Oh, Poisontipped is right about a 'quick fix' usually meaning a short-term or temporary solution, but in the context of drug abuse a fix is a dose of narcotics that the addict 'needs'. What the article's saying is that it will be easy for people to acquire drugs they're addicted to simply by going on the internet. Fix is also used in a negative sense to talk about other things people do compulsively or to an unhealthy degree, like watching a lot of TV or eating too much chocolate - basically comparing them to a drug addict getting their fix.
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