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Ladies and Gentlemen, here is the Lake Superior State
University 2008 List of Banished Words: words (and actually phrases
too) that have outlived their usefulness. Example, with comments:
RANDOM — Popular with teenagers in many places.
Actually, I remember "random" being used, and overused, back in my college days. As in: "A random B&G [Buildings and Grounds] troll [employee] was outside my window with a lawnmower at 7am! Bogus! [Unfortunate!]""Over-used and usually out of context, i.e. 'You are so random!' Really? Random is supposed to mean 'by chance.' So what I said was by chance, and not by choice?" — Gabriel Brandel, Farmington Hills, Michigan.
"Outrageous mis- and overuse, mostly by teenagers, i.e. 'This random guy, singing this random song … It was so random.' Grrrrr." — Leigh, Duncan, Galway, Ireland.
"Overuse on a massive scale by my fellow youth. Every event, activity and person can be 'sooo random' as of late. Banish it before I go vigilante." — Ben Martin, Adelaide, South Australia.
"How can a person be random?" — Emma Halpin, Liverpool, Merseyside, United Kingdom.
That was over 35 years ago. Nice to see it caught on.
We were also heavy abusers of the word "dude" back then, also mainstreamed since.
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Winston Churchill once said:
"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the
subject." The Edge Foundation gathered together the responses
of a whole bunch of non-fanatics to the question: What have you changed
your mind about?
It's a rich source for browsers of Big Thoughts, but my favorite (so far) is from that old hippie, Stewart Brand: Good Old Stuff Sucks.
What have I changed my mind about? Ummmm… I'll get back to you on that.
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Need a reason to live? Check out the upcoming movies of
2008. Batman, Indiana Jones, Iron Man, James Bond, Rambo, Wall-E.
And on Christmas Day, 2008: James T. Kirk.
There might be stuff for more adult tastes as well.
Jan
2
2008
URLs du Jour
2008-01-02