"Language is courage: the ability to conceive a thought, to speak it, and by doing so to make it true."
— Salman Rushdie
"Each person's life is lived as a series of conversations."
- Deborah Tannen
"There's no sense in being precise when you don't even know what you're talking about."
- John von Neumann
Especially, it might appear, on the gossip sites. I landed on this page (I'll own up to looking at the newly launched trailer for True Blood's upcoming season) and noticed these two buttons on the side. Is is that hard to use an adverb or to know which article goes with which noun?
We were in the car today when someone cut in sharply ahead of me. "Oh, thanks," I said. It emerged that Nick, who was curious about why I would thank an unknown driver, had missed my usually obvious tone of sarcasm.
In writing, it's ever harder.
I like this idea: the snark.
" 'See you in hell Sheldon.' The most frightening thing about that is the missing comma."
- Sheldon Cooper, in this week's Halloween episode of The Big Bang Theory
Our son just came up with this one, as a possible Christmas special title for The Simpsons.
"Look what's under the Mistle-[annoyed grunt]"
()
If it needs explaining, "annoyed grunt" is the script direction given to Dan Castellaneta, who came up with "D'oh!" As an ongoing joke, "annoyed grunt" now shows up in show titles and elsewhere, and is meant to be read as good ol' D'oh.
Indeed, as Castellaneta himself explains in this interview, the Simpsons writers still insist on using "annoyed grunt" in scripts, even though D'oh has become an accepted component of English usage.
"Words are loaded pistols."
- Jean-Paul Sartre
"I shouldn't be saying this, high treason really, but I sometimes wonder if Americans aren't fooled by our accent into detecting a brilliance that may not really be there."
- Stephen Fry, as quoted in this BBC piece on accents
"The warning message we sent the Russians was a calculated ambiguity that would be clearly understood."
- Alexander Haig
Surf’s Up, as published in the St. John's Telegram on Thursday, Nov. 18, 2010. Click here to read more Surf's Up.]
Kevin Major is one of the literary stars in Newfoundland and Labrador, creating much-loved books for young readers and adults, novels and non-fiction and even a play along the way.
You can add “wine blogger” to that list of credentials, for his weekly posts on wine are the first stop on this survey of what to read and do online.
One Brilliant Bottle
I have to confess that I was unaware until last month that Kevin was even writing a blog, let alone one about wine. He told me about it during an event we both attended last month, and so I checked it out.
One Brilliant Bottle is not merely about wine, but about specific types of wine, particularly organic, natural or biodynamic wines, which – among other things – are wines that eschew additives and/or mechanical processes. That restricts things a fair bit, and you should not be surprised to see that a good few of the wines Kevin writes about in his weekly postings are not at the local NLC.
But wine lovers will take a shine to One Brilliant Bottle. Each piece has some research to back it up, and the photography makes everything seem even more delicious. Kevin set out to write a post each week this year; let’s hope he keeps it going past December. [Update: He is. Yay.]
Elsewhere this week
Charity Intelligence
I heard about this site this week in Michael Hlinka’s commentary on Radio Noon. It’s a fascinating project: a hard-nosed analysis of charities that measures effectiveness, costs and other factors, with the sort of vigour that’s usually applied to the equities market. The goal: to produce a list of charities that guarantee high (social) returns. There are no local charities on the list (although one, Eva’s Initiatives, has been involved with Choices for Youth here in St. John’s), but it’s a thought-provoking read.
Refudiate: Word of the Year
Sarah Palin continues to fascinate political watchers, and a word she inadvertently coined this year has put her in the history books – if not necessarily with an achievement she’ll use in her next inevitable campaign. Refudiate is a word that notoriously went out in her Twitter feed, a sort of amalgam of refute and repudiate; it’s the New Oxford American Dictionary’s Word of the Year. Last year’s choice was “unfriend,” which has spread out from Facebook; it’s kind of fitting that this year’s choice is a clumsy (and snark-worthy) word from Twitter.
The Goldfish and Bob
You don’t have to read a novel, a story or even a poem to be moved or to have your perspective on the Big Things in Life challenged. This is a comic that Todd Webb created almost a decade ago; it takes only a few minutes to scroll through the panes and read the story of Bob, a lonely office type, and the lessons he learns about through his pet goldfish.
Wallet Pop
Many retailers do the lion’s share of their sales in the last three months of the year, particularly in the wind-up to Christmas. Wallet Pop is a consumer-minded blog that features plenty of advice of making informed decisions, and getting more value from your cards. Articles range from hot toys for Christmas to navigating sales to nasty things in the snacks we buy.
Meme from Yahoo
Just in case you don’t have enough social networks to call your own, here’s a whole other one to consider. Meme takes its name from the online phenomena in which something (a joke, a list, a task) gets passed from one person to another and eventually to many. Thus, Meme helps users share content between themselves, from baby photo to links to … well, whatever it is that gets people in a sharing mood.
John Gushue is an online editor with CBC News in St. John’s. Twitter: @johngushue.
A second list has been a long time coming. I finished it, in part, because the subject - words that are over-used, useless and/or unwelcome - is the subject of Radio Noon's Crosstalk on Monday. (I'm guest-hosting for the week.) Hopefully you'll be able to take part. Our guest is George Murray, who edits the always terrific Bookninja.
Here's my new list:
Outside the box: Somehow, I forgot this phrase last time. I won't repeat the mistake. "Outside the box" is, unfortunately, entrenched in the language. I commonly see it advertised in job notices, mentioned in news releases and said in all seriousness by people who should know better. I recall speaking with a senior editorial manager at CBC who insisted that all his hires "think outside the box." My argument, which probably didn't go over well, was that, by making it universal, he had basically just redefined the box.
Impactful: Just because it shows up in an online dictionary doesn't mean it should. I actually prefer this definion, from Urban Dictionary: "A non-existent word coined by corporate advertising, marketing and business drones to make their work sound far more useful, exciting and beneficial to humanity than it really is." There are so many more descriptive, powerful words out there; why not put them to work for you?
Impact, as a verb: Another unfortunate example that proves if enough people say it. it becomes so. But it shouldn't. Let's leave "impact" as a noun (and, even then, use it appropriately).
VIsioning: Here's a word that makes me shudder. "There's going to be a visioning session," someone told me recently with a straight face. I had to speak up for good grammar, and for common sense. It's difficult telling someone, including people I like, that a word is bafflegab and bureaucratic, but if it means plain, clear language is used, then that's the cost of a socially awkward moment.
Blue-sky, as a verb: The words "blue sky" are nice to see in a sentence about the weather. But when I hear something like, "let's blue-sky this and see where it leads," I pray for rain.
Reaching out: This is a question of usage, and is becoming prevalent in bureaucratese. I've noticed purported professionals writing something like "I'm reaching out because," and they use it when the writer means to say something like, "I would like to involve you in this" or "I would like you to act on this" or ... well, something else. Like a lot of jargon, it's not always easy to figure out what's meant. I'm amazed that public relations people (particularly in the UK, where some journalists have complained about the usage) deliberately choose a phrase that makes things fuzzy, not clear.
"Learnings": This one came on my radar a few years ago, when a colleague returned from a meeting and related how an organizer had said at the end, too earnestly, "Now, what are our learnings?" I've heard it many times since, and I've cringed every time.
Passive voice. Want to know a phrase that drives me mad? "It was decided that..." People often use the passive voice when they're not sure what they want to say, or, worse, don't want to be accountable for what has been said. It's sometimes a necessary writing choice, but it's usually much better to go with the active voice. A friend of mine who runs writing courses emphasizes one thing: if you can't or won't use the active voice, your writing will never, ever sing.
"A person who speaks good English in New York sounds like a foreigner."
- Jackie Mason
[The above image of Grand Central Station comes from the easilympressed Flickr stream.]
Serena Williams is still making waves with Saturday's spectacular outburst at a U.S. Open semi-final, in which she unleashed a series of threats and expletives against the judge who called a foot fault. The video below includes an annotation of what witnesses heard; the audio recordings have not been good, but the reports have been consistent.
Immediately after the set, which Williams lost to unseeded player Kim Clijsters, who would go on to win the women's final, Williams was in character:
"An apology? For what? How many people yell at linespeople?"
As for the judge to whom Williams apparently said, "I'll kill you," Williams said, "I don't know why [the lineswoman] said she felt threatened. I've never been in a fight in my life." Williams also said she could not even remember what she had said.
The incident, of course, was more than a weekend sports story; videos of the tirade have blown over the web, prompting a viral phenomenon. In the world of tennis, where, you know, stars are not supposed to threaten to kill line judges, this is not good form.
So, Williams is out and about this week, to salvage her reputation - or, to use a marketing word, her brand. This part of a CNN interview amused me:
"It was a really tough point in the match and it was really close and got a really tough call that wasn't the correct call, and, you know, things got a little heated and I had a conversation with the line judge that didn't go so well." [My emphasis]
I think all parties would agree it didn't so well, either.
Nor was it, really, much of a conversation.
Urban Dictionary was quick off the mark with a response to last night's tempest involving Republican Joe Wilson's "You lie!" yell as Barack Obama denied in a Congress address that his plan would cover illegal immigrants. You can watch that part of the incident here (although it's hard to hear Wilson clearly.)
The incident is all over the news this morning, and I was surprised that Urban Dictionary picked up on the controversy quickly enough to pick the phrase for the word of the day feature, which appeared in my email box early this morning:
The classiest way to respond to anyone you disagree with.
Obama: There are also those who claim that our reform efforts would insure illegal immigrants. This too is false - the reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally.
Joe Wilson: You lie!
I am a journalist with CBC News in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. I'm taller than I look. This blog has been running quietly since 2004.
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