Bling Bling, You're Dead

December 31, 2003 1:41 PM

The Word(s) Is Out.One of my favorite things about New Year's Eve/Day is the annual announcement of the Hall of Shame of Linguistic Incorrectness: The Lake Superior State University List of Banished Words. Metrosexual... bling-bling... embedded journalist... shock and awe... not much to argue with here. Uh, oh, they've banished Smoking Gun. And "LOL"? WTF? (The latest list hasn't hit the U's own website yet, but here's their complete listing of the previously banished, going back to 1976.)
posted by wendell (10 comments total)

... embedded journalist ...

Isn't that what you get when you shoot a journalist out of a cannon into a brick wall?

Or was that out of a canon?
posted by ZenMasterThis at 1:52 PM on December 31, 2003

I've never heard anyone say "hand-crafted latte."

And wouldn't "X" be more properly referred to as a banished letter?
posted by Vidiot at 2:05 PM on December 31, 2003

... embedded journalist ...

No, that's a journalist embedded up George W Bush's rear point. Oh wait, thats every journalist.
posted by benjh at 2:15 PM on December 31, 2003

I refuse to give up "sweat like a pig" (unless something can think of a better way to say it)
posted by amberglow at 2:52 PM on December 31, 2003

They didn't have "Get Your ____ On", "-izzle" or "Teh" for annoying slang. Maybe next year.
posted by Down10 at 2:58 PM on December 31, 2003

I already declared "embedded reporter" as the Most Overused Term of the Year in the MSNBC.com Year End TV summary, he self-linked. (18th item, 2/3 down the page)

amber, I prefer to use "grunt like a pig" and "sweat like a pro wrestler"...

And the "-izzle" thing already got sent up in TV Guide (seen in supermarket line, not online) which pointed out that after the Old Navy commercial in which Fran Drescher said "My shizzle's gone fa-zizzle", it was all over...

This really hasn't been LSSU's most on-target year... could be the first big step toward what one blogger calls "the Mr. Blackwell of usage".
posted by wendell at 6:20 PM on December 31, 2003

"Regime" as an epithet for governments we don't like.

Stop using it. Now.
posted by Hildago at 6:51 PM on December 31, 2003

... after the Old Navy commercial in which Fran Drescher said "My shizzle's gone fa-zizzle", it was all over...

I'd really like to believe that, but given then number of rubes still saying "my bad" I find myself skeptical.

... could be the first big step toward what one blogger calls "the Mr. Blackwell of usage".

I thought William Safire already had that title (though I hardly expect the typical blogger to know who he is, given that they seem to spend most of their time smelling each other's farts).
posted by Ayn Marx at 11:49 PM on December 31, 2003

I've never heard "hand crafted latte" before, but one instance is enough to convince me it should be banned. As if what, someone individually hand carved the coffee beans?

The -izzleization of words simply must go. It's lightyears beyond stupid.
posted by Shoeburyness at 1:13 AM on January 1, 2004

lol
posted by shadow45 at 12:31 AM on January 2, 2004