Sunday, January 3, 2010

Your Turn To Add To The List...

The article below contains the 2009 List of Words to Be Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness.

I would like to start a list of words & phrases that need to be banished and people who need to be "out of office" or people who should be "out of the limelight" in 2010 (or in the near future).

I'll start with a few:

Barack Obama
Nancy Pelosi
Harry Reid
Charlie Crist
Phrase - Man-Made Disasters
Phrase - Undocumented Workers

TCGuy's list:

Joe Biden
Phrase - Let Me Be Clear

Now it's your turn.  Have at it...


Once-presidential phrase casualty of word war
By JEFF KAROUB, AP

DETROIT — In its annual effort to protect the Queen's English, a Michigan university is insisting that "shovel ready" be buried, "tweet" be tossed and all "czars" be banished.
Lake Superior State University shamed those and several other words and phrases Thursday when it released its 2009 List of Words to Be Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness.
It insists that "shovel ready," incessantly invoked by the Obama administration to sell its $787 billion federal stimulus bill, dug its own grave. It forced its way into speeches and out of the mouths of the president and too many other politicians in past months.
"Stick a shovel in it. It's done," seethed Joe Grimm of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., in his nomination to the university's Word Banishment Committee. Grimm is a visiting journalist at Michigan State University and a former recruiter and editor at the Detroit Free Press.
The exact age of the phrase isn't known, but it had been a quiet favorite of economic development types for at least a decade — a fondness that led a utility company in upstate New York to secure the shovelready.com Web site in the late 1990s.
"Shovel ready" became a clarion call for the White House during the past year as shorthand for the kind of taxpayer-funded work projects that had been through the design and permitting process and were ready to launch.
Still, its vigor waned from verbal wear and tear in recent months. It didn't help that some of the projects weren't quite ready for a shovel, the literal or figurative kind.
"When something dies, it, too, is 'shovel ready' for burial and so I get confused about the meaning," wrote Jerry Redington of Keosauqua, Iowa. "I would suggest that we just say that the project is ready to implement."
The phrase was joined in dialectical death on the Michigan school's 35th banned words list by, among others, "transparent/transparency," "czar," "sexting," "tweet," "teachable moment" and "app." App — as in the iPhone's "there's an app for that" ad referring to the device's various applications — was preceded in death by "killer app," which was banished in 2002.
Many other terms related to the federal stimulus — or the failing economy that inspired it — have been thrown into the semantic scrap heap for 2010, including "stimulus" (the more blunt "bailout" bit the dust last year), "toxic assets" and "too big to fail." Apparently, failure was an option.
"Shovel ready" is survived by many other scrutinized phrases, including "death panel," "low-hanging fruit" and "door-buster," and none should assume immortality. The Word Banishment Committee doesn't shy away from executing its duties.
Mourners of fallen phrases can take heart. Those previously banished don't necessarily remain in the lexiconical hereafter. There is still life left, deserved or not, for "24/7" (which made the list in 2000), "it is what it is" (2008), "happy camper" (1993), "LOL" (2004) and "state of the art" (1993).

19 comments:

  1. Dear Lady,

    How about 'jadedfellow'? A hole bunch of lefties and radicals will be wanting to forget I took your advice and started a couple of blog rooms.

    You are such an inspiration!

    Gratefully yours,

    jadedfellow

    ReplyDelete
  2. TCL,

    How about Democrat! After all there is no such thing as a Democrat there are only Liberals and Socialists!

    ReplyDelete
  3. jadedfellow:
    I checked out your blog and it's off to a good start. I even signed up to "follow" it and I hope you'll consider signing up for mine.
    Good luck with it and I think "jadedfellow" can stay on the books for 2010...we need as many voices as possible to fight the good fight.
    Happy New Year!

    ReplyDelete
  4. (L):
    That's a good one. You're right...Democrats now-a-days are liberals and socialists. Even the "blue dogs" have been proven to be sell outs in the end.
    Thanks for commenting.

    ReplyDelete
  5. We should ban all the ones you wrote TCL, as well as Transparency, Let me Be Clear, ummmmmm, Duh, SEIU, Chicago Way, and Democrats, socialists. progressives, liberals, etc. etc.

    I think we should keep you always and your kind words and well wishes. Thank you for the adorable Rabbit Video, it made me and my guest laugh when I was showing him around the blogs.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Phrase: Global Warming
    Phrase: Climate Change

    Out: Barney Frank

    Great article. Being a Michigander, I missed this one.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Dearest Lady to Whom I Owe So Much,

    I have you prominently displayed on my favorites bar. Was concerned about signing up to "follow", don't want the left wrong side to track back my buddies and buddettes. Single dad protectionist deal I guess.

    I will leave the "Outhouse" for the most part intact, with possible updates to the original, as sarcasm dictates. Started the "Jaded Clean Room" as the avenue to humorously inquire "What the s--t is going on America".

    Yeah I am hooked. If I ever go back to the love of Tarpon fishing I would love to ride the flats boat with you.

    Thanks for keeping me on the books, as an accountant I appreciate the credit for the debit I owe you.

    jadedfellow

    ps;

    As far as loosing sleep; if you had to sleep with me you would not want to stay in bed either, so no bigge, I am already up before I want to be.

    ReplyDelete
  8. How about ACORN, or Kevin Jennings?

    I still laugh whenever I type "Barak Obama" on my word processor or blog. The spell checker keeps telling me it's misspelled. I laugh and laugh, and I will absolutely NOT hit "add!"

    ReplyDelete
  9. Bunni:
    Your list made me laugh...I never even thought of "Duh" and "ummmmmm", but they have been very overused since last January.
    I'm glad you like the little video I left for you and I hope you enjoyed your Birth Day.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Rotti:
    I'm sick of "global warming", "climate change" and "Barney Frank", too. Great choices.

    ReplyDelete
  11. jadedfellow:
    Hint...you will get more followers if you follow. Don't worry about the libs backtracking to your blogger buddies...that's why the "delete button" was invented.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Matt:
    Barack Obama still pops up as misspelled for me, too. I haven't added it to the dictionary either.
    ACORN and Kevin Jennings...great choices. We could do definitely do without them!

    ReplyDelete
  13. "The time for talking is over." Obama likes to say that when he doesn't like what people are saying.

    Somebody I wish was out of office? DICK DURBIN.

    And there is one word that's been making me crazy at work lately. Bandwidth. "Do you have the bandwidth to do this project?" Makes my skin crawl every time.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Janie Lynn:
    "The time for talking is over."
    That's a good one. I wish Obama's time for talking was over.
    Dick Durbin can go.
    "Bandwidth"...well, no one has asked me about my "bandwidth", but if it's a constant question to you, I can see why it's one you'd like to banish.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I am amazed that no one has mentioned Unprecedented. I would be very interested to know how many times he has said that word since taking office.

    ReplyDelete
  16. JACG:
    "Unprecedented"...Excellent word.
    I'm sure it's unprecedented how many times Obama has said "unprecedented".

    ReplyDelete
  17. "racist," "racism," and all variations. Overused to the point of being meaningless now.

    "extremists" being used incorrectly to paint any conservative as a terrorist (when they won't even call ACTUAL terrorists, terrorists.).

    "saved jobs." Hmph.

    "crisis" everything is a "crisis" to BO except actual crises.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Hi Fuzzy Slippers:
    Great word choices and the your reasoning is valid. "Crisis" is the perfect word that needs to be banned...they (BO admin) loves a 'crisis'...it's the only way they can push their agenda through.

    ReplyDelete
  19. A few more from me:

    People to go:
    Chris Dodd
    Robert Gibbs

    Words/Phrases:
    "the former administration"

    ReplyDelete

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