Saturday, September 04, 2004

Author's Note

This election year one word in the English language has been so abjectly overused and abused that I cannot help but make some attempt to intervene on its behalf: disingenuous.

Please, please--be you pundit or political hack: don't use words you don't understand because they are hot and big. And stop using words you might comprehend just because they come out of somebody else's mouth. That's how the worst cable news is spread.

For the health of the nation and the sake of my sanity, please just stop.

4 comments:

Sheryl said...

This is where I have to supress that inner fascist within me that wants to tease for the sake of being wicked and exerting my power. [Sheryl slaps her hand--"Behave, Girl!!!!!]

Inner fascist repressed. Whew, that was a close call.

9/04/2004 02:22:00 PM
J.R. Boyd said...

It's something we all have to watch out for.

9/04/2004 02:57:00 PM
J.R. Boyd said...

Wait--was that comment intended for this post?

9/04/2004 02:57:00 PM
Sheryl said...

No, this is definitely the post that I was thinking of. Complaints about language usage always make me want to tease people.

I used to have a boyfriend who would correct my language. I'd say "I don't feel good," and he would say in a pedantic fashion, "you don't feel well."

It wasn't till some years later that I figured out that "to feel" was a state of being verb and that I was right all along!!! And he literally had me tongued tied miscorrecting my language.

I probably should refrain from teasing people so much, but it's such fun. This doesn't really apply to you, but it's particularly fun if the person is vain.

But I don't really see power that way anyway, so I'm safe (for now at least.)

9/04/2004 10:13:00 PM

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