The sheep have spoken: and they’ve bleated “Surge” a lot
It seems the people have spoken - exactly what the government wants them to say. The word “surge” has made the list in the Lake Superior State University’s annual List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness.
Romance writers everywhere are in dismay. They will soon be forced to find another way to write “she felt a surge through her loins.” Such seemingly insignificant things, well, they can affect many.
Waterboarding also made the list, as the U.S. now is a nation that is so comfortable with torture that they even put torture-specific words into their colloquialisms. Government officials said they would be willing to call it “Splishy-Splashy Fun Time” if that made people feel better.
“Surge makes the banned-word list”
DETROIT - Resist the urge to say you will “wordsmith” your list of New Year’s resolutions rather than write one. And don’t utter, “It is what it is” when you fail to meet your first goal.
Those are two of the 19 words or phrases that appear in Lake Superior State University’s annual List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness. The school in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula released its 33rd list Monday, selecting from about 2,000 nominations.
Among this year’s picks are “surge,” the term for the troop buildup in Iraq. “Give me the old days, when it referenced storms and electrical power,” Michael Raczko of Swanton, Ohio, said in nominating the word.
The list also included “waterboarding,” “perfect storm,” “under the bus” and “organic.” Also: “It is what it is,” which Jeffrey Skrenes of St. Paul, Minn., said “accomplishes the dual feat of adding nothing to the conversation while also being phonetically and thematically redundant.”
Organic? Are you kidding me? That was on the list six years ago. Didn’t George Carlin do a bit on “organic” about 17 years back? I’m sorry, I think they just wanted to throw something liberal sounding out there.
Aside from that, let’s surge ahead and give some predictions for next year’s list:
“Why do they have to stay in the White House until January?”
“John Edward’s hair” (In any context)
“Hillary came off as shrewish”
“Bling”
“You’ve been Obamarized!”
“Whatever happened to Fred Thompson?”
“Mike Huckabee. Jesus.” or “Jesus, Mike Huckabee.”
“Oh my God, did you hear what Giuliani (did/said/ordered/etc.)”
“No, seriously, Ron Paul doesn’t have a racist bone in his body.”
“Impeachment.” (Well, at least some people will get sick of it.)
Feel free to add your own.
–WKW
January 7th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
Surge would be a good name for a soft drink.