Speaking to CNN on Sunday, Sarah Palin praised Jeb Bush for being bilingual and the “connection” that he has with the United States’ “large and wonderful Hispanic population,” but hedged her generous opinion by saying she’d rather people “speak American.”
Language is our primary weapon in the ceaseless conflict that is modern life. Today we examine two words that are perfectly terrible reflections of our time: wow and platisher.
Language is wonderful and language is alive, but language is also a form of psychological assault—especially when everybody suddenly starts using awful new terms and phrases just because everyone else is doing it, on Twitter. We are not so naive as to think we can "ban" this or that word, because "ban" is one of the…
problematic (noun, adjective) You're at work, looking at the Internet instead of doing tasks related to your employment. Something is bothering you! Did a celebrity comment on the issue of race? What is up with Katy Perry being so old? Why is "everyone" on Twitter mentioning a #longread that just didn't do anything…
selfie: (noun) Nobody has any idea how to take a photograph of another person. Or, everyone hates you. What else explains the badly lit and poorly focused horror mugshots your so-called friends produce when pointing their phones at you? Did they try to zoom in on the first pimple you've had in three years, or are they…
most powerful storm on record: A monster storm that's even worse than the last couple of nightmares we're still trying to recover from, but not as horrific as the one coming up next. Usage: "The most powerful storm on record is unrelated to global warming, a Senate Republican said."
lifehack (noun) A somber acknowledgement that while life itself is mostly boredom, disappointment and heartbreak, you can at least use up some of life's many hours with different ways to peel garlic or organize your closet shelves.
CR: 1. Abbreviation for "Congressional Republican," a member of an exclusive socialist commune on the Potomac River that provides private gyms, health care, pensions, tennis courts, guaranteed airline seats, reserved airport parking, fine dining, life insurance, a private subway, iPhones, postage stamps, luxury hotels…
federal government shutdown: Death ritual conducted by rich American men at an enormous, ornate temple on a hill.
beard: Ancient arcane term for a gay person's pretend heterosexual partner. Since the legal establishment of gay marriage, refers exclusively to lovingly tended long whiskers worn by urban men working in offices.
President Obama's Tuesday night speech should have been dumbed down for Americans, says a Texas-based language analyst.
Tech writer Harry McCracken hunted down the origins of the now-pejorative term "fanboy," as in "Apple fanboys defend everything Steve Jobs says." His adventurous history, which plunges into old comics, zines and computer bulletin-board systems, is highly recommended. In short:
The salacious title of the Weinstein Co.'s new Kevin Smith flick Zack and Miri Make a Porno is proving to be a bad decision. It's already screwed up the movie's marketing efforts. Must it lead to stilted reviews as well? "And so it will hardly be shocking that 'Zack and Miri Make a Porno' is about two people, named…
We thought the bizarre GOP attacks against "community organizers" were just commonplace venom against those dumb enough to try to "change the system" with anything other than money and its attendant political power, not necessarily coded messages (the disdain Rudy Giuliani displayed when snarling the words was surely…
New York Times restaurant critic (and totally self-appointed head language bitch on campus of us all!) Frank Bruni so rightly rails against the "semantic pox" of restaurantspeak today. Examples: The use of the first person singular ("How are we enjoying the quail?"); the overusage of "enjoy" ("How are we enjoying the…
Times trend queen Stephanie Rosenbloom totally blows up the spot on the hottest word out there right now for vaginas: Vajayjays. What makes Ms. Rosenbloom so sure the word has arrived? Well, after its use on "Grey's Anatomy" the word has "found its way into electronic dictionaries like Urban Dictionary, Word Spy and…
"Prole creep"—a coinage, apparently, of Paul Fussell's—is possibly the most useful phrase of our time. And yet it isn't being used enough. The handiest definition is probably "Wearing sweatpants/tracksuits while not exercising." [We, like sheep]
"It's going to be a salon; I hope my apartment can be a place that Alpha Kitties, men and women who are interesting in New York, will want to come by, shoot videos together, and just hang out, figure out how to do interesting things together," former Seventeen editor Atoosa Rubenstein tells the Observer of her plans…
Or, at least, how to sound like a local idiot! As we prepare for this weekend's journey to the Hamptons, the life lessons are already piling up. First of all—did not know this!—one doesn't go "up to the Hamptons," one goes "out to" them. This is, you see, because of their geographic location! Still, whatever, you…
William Safire's former copy editor Jaimie Epstein, now a "freelance writer," took over his On Language column for this week's New York Times magazine and she is a big heap of "I rolled around in Daphne Merkin's hairshirt" nuts! It's like a mirage imagined by Lawrence Summers—lady takes over an oh-so-manly column and…
