Extirpation... the final frontier

I had to take a little break and post something funny I came across. I was diligently poring over a scholarly article, when I read this:

We should seek it out and extirpate it whenever it rears its abhorrent visage.

Well, now, in the vernacular, the last part of that sentence might just be, 'rears its ugly head.' But I must admit 'abhorrent visage' sounds much loftier than 'ugly head,' and so incredibly erudite. That's academia for you, complicating matters in order to sound more intelligent.

I just have one more contention: that author really should have changed "rears" too, so readers would have been even more impressed, and less cognizant of the source phrase. Oh well. Onward!

[Ed. note: I failed to properly cite my source... I should have known better, as a current student! Here it is, in lovely APA format.

Hauptman, R. (2002, Nov/Dec). Dishonesty in the academy. Academe, (88)6, 39-45. ]