Osprey, You have some friends/supporters here.
Can't open it either on a tablet
Here it is:
Incredible
This is long overdue – it is a rant, an essay on language. I fell in love with language at an early age and that love led me to take on the role of
a Prescriptive, one who champions the cause of preserving classic English, i.e. opposes those who wish to change it.
Evidence of the abuse is on the street, on Television and newspapers wherever English is the prevalent language. I can list a thousand words found in
chit chat and news that scream out the dumbing down of basic news reporting but I only need one word to make my point.
All across the U.S. exist TV newsrooms that feed the news of the day, in the language of the day, every second of the day. The word is used by people
paid to say it, write it down as a core term in the narrative of each falling crane, flash flood or two-headed calf birthing.
The word is Incredible. You won’t have to look it up. We all know the word means UNBELIEVABLE, UNTRUE, HAVING NO CREDENCE. Usually two or more
professional journalists insert the word, approve and authorize its use to bring the real-time world to the curious audience. These people, producers,
editors and presenters all agree the word applied quite aptly to what they bring you as facts.
So the people who are hired to explain, in your favorite language, the raging forest fire or mass of beached sperm whales on the big screen behind
them, TELL YOU, SHOW YOU, WHAT YOU ARE SEEING IS NOT TRUE. The producer/editor wrote the piece, the pert blond with great posture proudly read it
from the teleprompter. None of them ever questioned the others if the word was appropriate --- none of them can adequately tell you what the word
means. Of all the billions of words out there I can’t think of ONE that is so obscure, diffuse, and meaningless than Incredible – it is as though
it was coined by a madman as a prank. His goal was to obliterate, erase and take out of use the formerly popular adjectives like magnificent,
spectacular, stunning, notable, destructible, lamentable, colossal, powerful, evocative and a million more.
Since the viewers and readers seem to be satisfied with the “One word fits all” reporting method, it won’t be long before we’ll see and read
more news about more things but in small, tailored packets of words; we will grow to love “Fire in trees, bad”, “Sperm Whales can’t walk” or
“Future sees more stampedes”. All across the nation, in newsrooms great or small the new method will undoubtedly catch on. Heard in the
lunchrooms, at the water cooler “Herb, how do you like the new guy from Cleveland?”
“Tim? He’s incredible.”
bajalinda - 7-23-2018 at 04:42 PM
Thank you, Osprey. Loved your essay / rant!AKgringo - 7-23-2018 at 04:55 PM
Well said! And I know that Osprey would never address a topic by saying "I'll speak to that", when he means he will speak about
that!
[Edited on 7-25-2018 by AKgringo]BajaBlanca - 7-24-2018 at 07:35 PM
Hola Jorge! Good to see ya writing!!
My pet peeve is ...like.....seems that every teen has to insert the word "like" over and over in every sentence.
Which is like, incredible, isnt it?
Word Power.V6G3B7 - 7-25-2018 at 08:57 AM
Excellent Jorge. I, too, am a language nerd. The amount of incorrect useage on television, the press and especially the Internet in, get this,
INCREDIBLE.
I have two thoughts for you to contemplate, that I've been postponing to write about :
(1) About 2 years ago, I heard a present the abuse and misuse of a word that I now cannot get out of my head since I see and hear sooooo often ---
"literally". Used constantly and incorrectly. "I could literally eat 100 of them." The correct word, of course, is figuratively, or metaphorically.
(2) The general mis-use and abuse of ADJECTIVES & ADVERBS when reporting "the news" is obscene. "The stock market PLUMMETED 75 points today." Give
me a break. Just give me the facts and I'll decide if it plummetted, dropped, moved or whatever.
The next time your listening to the TV or reading an article, I bet you will be extremely aware of my two comments, above, to the point that you've
created an annoyance for yourself and that you hardly enjoy the way news is dumbed-down and reported any more.
Once again, a very good essay.Skipjack Joe - 7-25-2018 at 11:33 AM
Stephen Curry uses the word 'obviously' too often. It becomes annoying because you expect it and wait for it. He not only uses it inappropriately but
seems to just throw it out there for no known reason. I wonder if that's a mental thing, a compulsion to use the same word repeatedly.
[Edited on 7-25-2018 by Skipjack Joe]pauldavidmena - 7-25-2018 at 11:54 AM
