BP Daily Podcast

To answer a question Sam raises in the podcast: a "Sophie's choice" should be understood as a choice between two options, both of which are agonizing and either of which will cause the chooser everlasting anguish and regret, even though s/he has no option but to make the choice, because if s/he doesn't then both of the agonizing things will happen. It's analogous to the "would you rather" game, except that the things that happen affect other people, and the choices are not humorous in the least.

In popular usage, I've seen "Sophie's choice" used, as Sam did, to describe a situation that is in no way comparable to the choice that Sophie has to make.

Also, since we're raising cultural awareness, Sophie's Choice was a novel (by William Styron) before it was a movie.

Also, since the last paragraph makes me sound snooty, I haven't read the book or seen the movie. (But I did have to read the excerpt of the book containing the choice. It's much more fun to watch baseball than to read excruciatingly sad literature, let me tell you.)