Amazingly Ginormous as the New Normal

A Bit of Photo Trickeration

I don't know about you, but for me, New Year's Eve has never really been a noteworthy event. Oh sure, there was Dick Clark for almost every year of my life, but when I can watch the celebration three hours earlier in Australia and get the same thrill (without Kathy Griffin), there's not much sense in staying up. After smooching with the same honey for more than a few decades, staying up late to do that just doesn't titillate. And I certainly never did anything so intriguing as the folks at Lake Superior State University did back in 1975. Those wacky academics decided that it was up to them to cleanse the lexicon of overused words and phrases in hopes of once again offering a purified version of the King's English (with apologies to Elvis). Putting their (egg) heads together, they decided that the time was right to occupy word use.
Anyway, out of that celebration was born an annual poll that was designed to glean from frustrated people the most trite and or overused words of that particular year. To be sure, expressions like "groovy" probably made the list, and "awesome" could have been a top choice as well, but this year's list is no slouch, either.
In the 37th annual poll of words that should be relegated to the "lexicographic scrap heap" are the following. Pick your favorites and DON'T USE THEM in 2012.

Getting the most votes this year was "amazing," decried as blatantly overused as well as incorrectly used (really?). Anderson Cooper, for example, is said to have used this word three times in the opening 45 seconds of a program. That's amazing...oops.

Anyway, thanks to Beyonce, we were bombarded with "baby bump" references throughout the year, and I would be happy to see that disappear as well...though it's better than "knocked up" or some other colorful appellation for that, um, condition.

OK...while I do not have the entire list featured on CNN.com, here are some of the other notables:
"shared sacrifice, occupy, blowback, man cave, ginormous, the new normal, and trickeration" (a word I especially hate because it makes sports people look like the idiots everyone else already supposed them to be!).

Finally, in this election decade (notice it promises to last unabated for the next ten years) there is "Win the future," an ideal extolled by politicians everywhere. The way I see it, it would be less than possible to "lose" the future. It will be here whether we wish it to be or not. The Mayans, of course, have a different vision for 2012, and if theirs is closer to reality than I want to believe...
"Arm-a-Geddin" out of here.