I just deleted my own question about the sentence in the Time magazine (July 8) article titled “The Happiness of Pursuit” (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2146449,00.html) as I noticed that I overlooked a word (poor) in the quoted sentence.
However, I came across another line I cannot make out in the same copy block:
“Rich isn’t just better; it’s much better. That is how things shake
out at the national and global level. At the individual and community
level, it can be much different. If you’re rich, your experiences are
not the same as every other rich person’s, and the same is true if
you’re poor. “A reporter once asked me, ‘Yes or no, does money make
people happy? No scientific waffling, Just yes or no.” says
psychologist Edward Diener of the University of Illinois, “I hit
Delete.”
What does the ending phrase, “I hit Delete” mean? Is it the same as the 'Delete’ practice as we do, and I did on my question an hour before in EL&U site?
Best Answer
I assume the reporter asked the question via email, and so Diener simply hit the Delete key on his email application. In other words,
As for it being idiomatic English, expressions like that one are used every now and then, where we use computer or technology jargon to explain something, perhaps metaphorically, such as "rebooting my life" (when turning over a new leaf), or "pulling the plug" when we want to, say, abandon a project.