Banned words

The Lake Superior State University comes out with a list of banned words each year and has done so for 35 years in a row. To me this is a list of phrases and words that have been over-used in the past year, and then again some of the words and phrases listed I have NEVER heard anyone use in a sentence, but all the same this school has banned them. I am sure that this is all in good fun, and I seriously doubt if they have ever expelled a student for letting one of these banned words fall off of their lips. Enjoy!

1. Shovel-ready:There are several difinations for this term. One is being ready to bury. Ex. "My ipod is shovel-ready, I think I want a new one." Defintion number two is that a project is ready to go, meaning that all the permits have been obtained, workers are hired, plans have been set and you are basically ready to begin the work. The first use if the word is the banned defintion.

2.TRANSPARENT/TRANSPARENCY: This word is thought to be "hot" in the new year, but I doubt it. We all know that if something is transparent we can see through it, like a pane of glass is transparent. A second use of the word is to be free from pretense or deciet, or to be frank. This second useage is the one the are banning. I think it would be rather refreshing if things were more frank in certain areas but in reailty that will never happen.

3.CZAR: We all know this word. It has been used throughout the years to label all sorts of people in postions of power. We tend to forget that the use of the word Czar came from Russia in the form of tsar' meaning emperor or one of great power. Now days there are oil czar's, housing czars, car czars, drug czars, birth control czars, and of last year weatherization czar. I think they should come up with a different word for a person in power and retire czar, it is kind of an American Tradition to use this word. It's been in use since 1919 when they first called Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, appointed by team owners as commissioner-for-life as the "baseball czar".

4.Tweet: We all know this word. We all have used it in some form or variation of it ever since twitter came on-line. Merriam-Webster define it as a "chirping note". I'm not sure what we could replace it with, so it seems to me that those that are against this word will just have to grin and bear it until the Twitter becomes a thing of the past.

5.SEXTING: Sexting is the act of sending sexually explicit messages or photos electronically, primarily between mobile phones. Now this is tricky. In some states if you are under the age of 21 and are caught "sexting" that means big trouble for you. This is a teenage thing, and it was a "hot" thing to do if you were under the age of 21. Kind of their version of living dangerously. To me this speaks volumes of being skanky, yep a 1990 word. If your married that's one thing, but if your 16 and your wanting to impress your new boyfriend a pic of your naughty bits wont do it. Your pic will end up being forwarded from one jerk to another jerk and before you know it everyone has seen your naughty bits. Not cool.

6.FRIEND AS A VERB: This should state "Friending", as in one Myspace or Facebook your friended someone. I have never used this term, but them again I typically speak in full sentences.

7.TEACHABLE MOMENT: This is another way of saying "a lesson", as in "there was a teachable moment there, but they didn't absorb it." Another defintion is an oppuinunity to make a point. Example, "I had a teachable moment but I held my tounge." For me this doesn't work. There are always moments where I have clairity and realize that I just taught my 5 year old a new word that I am going to regreat come monday when he's in pre-k. As for the other useage of the term has me boggled. I have never used it nor have I heard it used in that context. Usually when someone is making a point in a conversation they say "well I have a point", or something along those lines. That is just an odd useage for the term "teachable moment" and I am being transparent on this. (Ha, ha, just kidding)

8.IN THESE ECONOMIC TIMES…. : This phrase has been used and used till it's almost like kicking a dead horse. Yes,we all are aware that we are broke and are having to be on a fixed budget. I don't need to hear it from every single news caster on the 5 PM evening news. Trust me, I can read my bankstatement to see how hard these economic times are. I am so tired of people telling me I can't be wasteful, I can't afford to miss the cupons in the Sunday paper because of the savings I could have in this hard economic time. Blah, blah, blah. I have a plan to get by, do you?

9.STIMULUS: Usually when we hear this word lately it has another word tacked on to it, package. Yep, stimulus package. We all know that certain groups of people have recieved those handy packages of money that were given under the idea that they would stimulate spending or something along those lines. To be honest the only stimualting package I care to hear about is my husband's and of course I love to read about Erik's in the Sookie Stackhouse books.

10.TOXIC ASSETS : This term means a bad loan, or debt. Toxic assets makes me think that you have a barrel of toxic waste in your basement. Yuck. This is not a great term and I am all for doing away with it.

11.TOO BIG TO FAIL: We all know what this means. Like for instance Walmart is too big to fail. It's not that it is, it's just that people rely on it overly much so it wont. Nothing is too big to fail, or too big to suck. Let me just express how shocked I was to hear how bad the lastest and greatest from Dan Brown was in real life. It was one of the top selling books of 2009 and it sucked. Yep it made tons of money in sales, but I doubt if the next book will. Who knows it may sell even more simply because people have high hopes for the series. To me this phrase makes no sense, everything can fail.

12.CHILLAXIN': I hate this word personally. I have a certain sister-in-law that used it all summer. It seemed that this word was in every sentence she spoke. I think this word is shovel ready. (See I used it!)

13.OBAMA-prefix or roots: A few examples is : Obamanomics, Obamanation, Obamafication, Obamacare, Obamalicious, Obamaland. Yuck. That's all I have to say on that. Don't use these terms, they are grody. Slang is just slang anyway you put it.


Well, folks that's the list. This coming year will give us new words that will make us cringe and there will be words that we will adore. Remember to use any slang terms with care and please leave them out of your manuscrpits!