Sayin’”-ara
The new year always brings lists of words that were big over the last 12 months, particularly Lake Superior State University’s list of banished words—terms we heard too much of in 2007 and should never hear again in 2008. This year’s list included “perfect storm,” “random” (“How can a person be random?” wrote one word-watcher), “post-9/11” (which should’ve made the list years ago) and, worst of all, “It is what it is,” which “accomplishes the dual feat of adding nothing to the conversation while also being phonetically and thematically redundant.” (The full list is at www.lssu.edu/banished.)
Unfortunately, not only is the banishment list nonbinding, it’s incomplete. We need stricter enforcement, and we need a more comprehensive list. Some necessary additions for 2008 of words that should never be uttered or written again:
“Just sayin’”; “hipster”; “LOL-” as a prefix (LOLcat, LOLhamster, LOLJesus); “Internets” (related: “series of tubes”); “prolly”; “veritable”; “amid a sea of bubblegum pop like [insert celebutard’s name here]”; “burgeoning”; “the perfect cure for what ails ye”; and once more to make sure you got the point, “Just sayin’.”
Scrabble with a cause
With the Angry Grammarian Great Scrabulous Tournament Challenge Rumpus, begun in November, almost down to the Sweet 16 (you can see the brackets on Facebook), an obviously inferior but still pretty cool new challenge has come along: Scrabble for Cheaters.
The bad news: It’s in New York. The good news: It’s a fundraiser for 826NYC, a nonprofit that promotes writing and literacy skills for kids, and you can still sponsor others.
Teams of two get sponsored by friends (and Angry Grammarian readers), and players can “buy” certain cheats while competing: Flip a letter over and make it blank for $100; add a Q, Z or X to any word, anywhere, for $200; invent a word, definition included, for $500; and lots more. Plus, Daily Show funnymen John Oliver (the British guy) and John Hodgman (the “I’m a PC” guy) are competing, probably because, with the show on hiatus till a few days ago, they didn’t have anything else to do.
Register or sponsor others at www.826nyc.org/scrabble.
Subscribe free to the Angry Grammarian podcast at www.theangrygrammarian.com.