Metonymy: a figure of speech used in rhetoric in which a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by the name of something intimately associated with that thing or concept.

For their presentation in my Conceptual Foundations of Methodological Research class, one of the groups presented their research paper that looked at the media’s treatment of President Obama through metonymy.

As a result, when Brian Williams asked Chuck Todd about 5 minutes ago what “that building behind you will be looking for tomorrow” in reference to the White House, the ONLY thing I could think was:

That building will not be looking for anything tomorrow… it has NO EYES!

Grad School absolutely RUINS your ability to see, hear, or read ANYthing without spinning it into some huge complex issue… I guess this is okay, but sometimes I just don’t want to think that much…