I saw something on the news in the fog of holiday revelry called the Lake Superior State University 2006 List of Banished Words. It interested me, because the news said the word "banned" instead of banished, and I thought that meant if people on radio say any of these words, they'll have to scramble to the dump button, or people would have to pay fines if one of these words slip out. But no, it's banished, which is better, because the words are now all sent off to a magical land with the bad wizards and villains from Krypton and stuff like that. Banishment is fun, in my mind.
Of these words--only three are really words, the others are all compound nouns and stuff--I think I used only two last year, and in a very sarcastic manner. FEMA, I took in vain several times, but I've done that since The X-Files movie came out, so I was ahead of everyone else. Except other fans of The X-Files, I guess.
The two terms I now apologize for having used last year are "Breaking News," and "Dawg," even if I was, in fact, reporting FBI raids up the street and heckling Randy Jackson at the time. There's no excuse for it, and I regret it most heartily. I will, from now on, use more words and say, "This just in," when something happens, like the old time news guys. I do love that kind of lifestyle, after all. I was always stuffing scrawled notes under my door, so I'd find them and mystery would ensue. But I digress.
What I fear this post is going to end with is me wondering whether or not to watch American Idol again this year. After the complete mental episode of last April, I'm not sure I could face another season of watching bad singers I've become attached to get voted off while other bad singers I don't like as much not only stay on, but get to sing better songs in the following weeks.
The post will not end there, no...it ends with me finding the archives of Banished Words going all the way back to 1976. Awesome, I say, because even if the one-year moratorium on awesome was lifted twenty years ago, I am guilty of even more crimes against language than I was aware, and I'm just going to go on from here, a little wiser, and a little more snobby.
Friday, January 06, 2006
From the banished shores of Lake Superior....
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2 comments:
I read banned books and used banished words. It's a point of pride. ;-D
I am glad to see "holiday tree" on the list. Besides the Christmas Tree, there's only the Easter Egg Tree for holiday get-upping, so unless you plan to have a decorated tree at Ramadan, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day, and Flag Day then calling it a "Holiday Tree" is just compost.
[.sigerette tree wants to fight in a Sith War and be decorated for it]
I'm just glad they don't cut down trees for Arbor Day.
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