Here's the s-list for https://www.lssu.edu/traditions/banishedwords/"]this year.
Have at it.
Forgive yr auntie's long absence, hospitalized for three months. Meanwhile, the NitLet's...
Type: Posts; User: AuntShecky; Keyword(s):
Here's the s-list for https://www.lssu.edu/traditions/banishedwords/"]this year.
Have at it.
Forgive yr auntie's long absence, hospitalized for three months. Meanwhile, the NitLet's...
I've always been under the impression that the word "concerning" is a synonym for "regarding" or "about" (a certain topic.)
Lately news talk show anchors and guests have been using the word as a...
One more time, CNN and MSNBC: "Reticent" does not mean the same as reluctant or hesitant.
And here's a new one I saw on a web page yesterday about superstitions: that black cats have gotten a...
Danik and Manichaean, thanks so much to both of you for your kind comments. Don't be surprised is somebody implores you: "Don't encourage her!"
There was no intention to skirt the censors. It...
Words of Whiz Dumb 2021
[Click.]
“-rab your debit card and a 90-pack of Muckenmire’s Beer. Think of Muckenmire whenever you’re handing out food and beverages to voters waiting in line. And don’t...
On the same cable news channel on separate programs, I heard two different commentators confuse the same term.
They said “craven” when I’m fairly sure they meant “blatant.” Or even “brazen.”...
Despite all one's hopes to the contrary, yer ol' Auntie isn't getting younger as the days drone on. There are some notions masquerading as ideas rattling around in the ol' beaner, and with any luck...
Better a ferret on his head rather than a gerbil in one's pants. (Plug it in the "Google" machine.)
By the bye, at least Frank pronounced the word "reprise" correctly.
I've been a LitNetter for well over a decade. Why all of a sudden did the site become "insecure?" Is this the dastardly work of Cloudflare?
I've been adjusting/readjusting VPN connections a...
"Every month should be Black History Month, because there is no American history without Black American History."
--Eugene Robinson, "Morning Joe," February 2, 2021
Hogging Ground
How mean is Winter, what a miser with his light,
received so desperately, as when a desert gets rare rain.
So furry figures of folklore are forever held in doubt.
A glimpse,...
[I'm going to attempt a short posting here, but the notorious CloudFlare is up to its nasty tricks again, so it's anybody's guess if the following shows up.]
In the past two weeks or so, I've...
Hey fellow NitLetters, if it's okay with you, let's start a new thread containing quotations.
Post a line or two that strikes you as remarkable, either a short passage you've come across in your...
(The following could be considered a true "Dad" joke as it was related by an actual "dad" upon perusing a take-out menu that had arrived in the mail.)
What do you call a scaredy- cat couch?
...
This phenom is called "the anxiety of influence," a term and a theory once coined by Harold Bloom. (Just substitute "writer" for "poet.") T.S. Eliot offered earlier and similar notions in his essay,...
Weather reports: "Peaks of sun" when they mean "peeks."
More and more I'm seeing the word "roll" confused with the noun "role." It popped up just a few minutes ago, on msn.com of all places. ...
Yes, but that horrible day was outrageous, frightening, and downright heart breaking.
I kept thinking of the quotation of the underrated Alfred E, Smith: "The only cure for the evils of democracy...
I agree with banning the "Thank you for having me" line, Manichaean. And Danik, "the new normal" was one of the expressions I was going to add today. Thank you both for weighing in.
Now, "Wait...
The long national nightmare is over! (No, we still have about 19 days to wait for that one to end, God willing!) I mean the wait for the Annual List of Banished Words. Here's the 2021 Version.
...
Soggy Santas
Tough year. No doubt. There might be a soupçon of pathos when we wish each other a Merry (or Happy) Christmas.
Now to make things even worse on an unavoidably sober Christmas...
Yesterday, I recalled the probably apocryphal anecdote about Elvis. Legend has it that he was watching tv at his Graceland home when the Broadway star, Robert Goulet, came on. at which point Elvis...
It's "toe the line," not "tow."
Also, the expression is "one and the same," not "in."
You don't have to apologize for your likes or dislikes. Reading for pleasure is one of the best things anyone can do for himself , as well -- believe or not -- society in general.
Hmmm-- neo-neo-classic maybe? Most interesting structure -- a variation on the sestina form? I hear echoes of Swinburne too (but maybe that's just me.) This is not to say that the piece is...
Bear with me while I fill you in on some personal background.
In April.2019. I first discovered that I had eye problems. I noticed sudden trouble with reading very small type, which, given my...