Going bald on record?

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Hello,I'm reading a text by Ron White about politeness in international communication (i.e. in international English). He mentions the phrase "going bald on record" as an example of behaviour in relation with positive politeness.My question: what is meant by this phrase "going bald on record"? I guess it is an idiomatic phrase and I've looked all over for a translation or equivalence in my native language (Swedish) but with no reslut.Anyone?//Andy

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[nq:1]Hello, I'm reading a text by Ron White about politeness in international communication (i.e. in international English). He mentions the ... and I've looked all over for a translation or equivalence in my native language (Swedish) but with no reslut. Anyone?[/nq]
Google is your friend!
This isn't what I would call an idiom, but I did find two (and only two) references to this phrase on the Internet, one of which gives an explanation. This is a discussion of Portuguese conversational norms written by a woman whose name seems to be Portuguese, so I suspect taht the phrase is a word-for-word translation of a Portuguese phrase. Her definition is as follows "bald on record (direct comments, with no attention paid to the wants or needs of the hearer)". You can find the whole text at http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol9/issue1/oliveira.html - it's in the section on politeness and impoliteness.

The other text on politeness of political interviews examines a fairly hostile interview of Tony Blair by David Frost and contains the sentence: "Be direct ? by going bald on record, and avoiding redress, the questions can be asked in the maximally efficient manner." This would seem to negate my theory about the phrase being Portuguese in origin. As examples of this the text gives: "what can you do about (.) all of that ...?", "why not?", "is that true?" among others. you can find the article at http://www.yoell.fsnet.co.uk/nature%20of%20language.htm

Regards, Einde O'Callaghan

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Thank you Einde for your quick response! It makes perfect sense with the context in the article I've been reading.
BTW, I tried Google before posting here but did not find anything. Now when I looked in my history bar I saw I did make a typo when searching.

Thx again!
//Andy

Going bald on record?

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