by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow
As appearing in the Daily Sentinel
In a famous 1969 sketch from Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Eric Idle approaches a stranger in a pub with a series of cryptic relationship questions, ending each with “wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more.” The skit was so popular it was repeated in the 1971 film, “And Now For Something Completely Different,” the 1982 film, “Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl,” and the album, “Monty Python Live at City Center.”
Since then, “nudge nudge” has become a common expression, originally implying something off-color, but more recently just hinting that the speaker isn’t really saying what he means. An online database of idioms says it is “often added after the initial phrase as a way of emphasizing that no further explanation or discussion is needed.”
I hear it in political discussions frequently, a hint that, “I don’t need to spell this out; most of you know what I really meant.” I couldn’t help thinking of the expression when I read the joint statement of Colorado Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper regarding the proposed national monument status for 391,000 acres of Dolores Canyons. It is among the hottest controversies on the Western Slope, and numerous leaders were asking the senators for some signal of their intentions.
Their statement might as well have ended with the old idiom, because the press release essentially says, paraphrasing, “we support permanent protection for the area, but only if it means no changes of any kind.” They might have concluded with, “wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more.”
