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And Now for Some Trash Talk
With the help of Mim Harrison's delightful book "Words at Work," let's go Dumpster diving and examine some jargon from the world of garbage collection ... er, "waste management."
If you still think of a garbage truck in the …Read more.
These Boots Were Made For…
Two random dispatches from the Word Front...
— Talking the Walk
"I am a slow walker," Abraham Lincoln once said, "but I never walk back."
If only today's politicians would follow honest Abe's example. Every day, it seems …Read more.
What's the Scoop on 'Troop'?
Q. What's up with the noun "troop"? The definition of this word as I learned it and as defined by Merriam-Webster is "a group of soldiers." Yet, so frequently these days, I hear or read lines such as "three troops were …Read more.
A Child's Garden of 'Versus'
Q. Last year, we had a foreign exchange student from Germany stay with our family. When he wanted to challenge our boys to a video game, he would say he wanted to "verse" them. I have never heard of that form of "versus" being …Read more.
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2011: A Year When Cliches 'Went Missing'? Each January, I usually present my readers with a collection of terms that were overused during the previous year. But guess what? Tired expressions that had abounded in 2010 went missing in 2011.
This epic event was a real a-ha moment for me. The wow factor of this game-changer trended positive all year long, from the Arab Spring in the Middle East to Octsnowber in southern New England. Breaking news: Everything was on the table! And, believe me, in this economy, people manned up 24/7 to avoid the trite. What's amazing is that this trend didn't just kick the can down the road. It transcended inside baseball, partisan gridlock and the Euro-debt crisis. Last year's avoidance of hackneyed sayings pepper-sprayed the partisan divide and offered attractive offers for well-qualified buyers. You might even say it occupied mall-speak and became the new normal. Steering around train wrecks and epic fails like the debt-ceiling deadlock, it showed the swag of a cougar. How cool is that? That said, the 99 percent might ask, "Are you sure?" Absolutely. In fact, there's an app for that question. This avoiding of buzzwords swept the country as fast as the planking craze. Ripped from the headlines, it improved its branding and expanded its skill set.
Think about it. Business people no longer devised new platforms for product launches or leveraged cost-effective, green solutions to enhance the personal customer experience. Instead, they focused on sweeping changes and mission-driven narratives. Not to be left out, politicians, now free of tired terminology, felt more comfortable in their own skins, revised their back stories, maximized their superPACS and focused on framing smart solutions. They were able to reward job creators, reduce job-killing regulations, play politics and take up-or-down votes. So where does this scorning of cliches leave us, going forward? Will it provide a source code for the digital age? In 2012, we'll be free to do what we've always been best at: jump-starting the economy, thinking outside of the box and pushing envelopes (though, given recent U.S. Postal Service cutbacks, not quite as fast as we used to). Wait a minute. I just realized that this column is chock full of overused terms that went viral during 2011. Contagion! I've become infected without realizing it. As my BFF Rick Perry so eloquently put it, "Oops." Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Conn., invites your language sightings. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via e-mail to Wordguy@aol.com or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 5777 W. Century Blvd., Suite 700, Los Angeles, CA 90045. COPYRIGHT 2012 CREATORS.COM
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