As a journalist – and an avid reader – I love words. I spend a lot of time with them, and I enjoy putting them on a page, marking them up, and reworking them to convey the facts and thoughts I want to share with others.
Still, there are some words and phrases that drive me nuts. For example, I cringe when people take words that are verbs, and make them into nouns. A recent trend I’ve heard is people saying, “I have an ask out,” when what they mean is that they’ve posed a question. The question is what’s out – ask is the action used to put it out there.
I am comforted by the fact that I’m not the only person in the world who ponders such things or sounds off about them. The fine folks at Lake Superior State University, in fact, offers a fun platform for people to weigh in on overused, misused or nonsensical words – or maybe words that aren’t actual words – that should be stricken from our collective vocabularies.
The university’s 2012 List of Banished Words, like many of its predecessors, is a good roundup. Continue reading ‘Strike the amazing baby bump, banished words list says’
Where did my Wikipedia go? What’s up with Google? Why can’t I get on Craigslist? 
On a tour this morning of the White River Conference Center, I got a taste of Big Cedar Lodge right here in Springfield.
It seems only natural this time of year to have one eye on the past while the other eye looks ahead. 
Aaron Scott
Eric Olson
Joyce Embree
Maria Hoover
Geoff Pickle
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