Misused, Overused and Generally Useless

One of the things that's trending right now is the never-ending compilation of lists that hope to encapsulate the outgoing year in an attempt to kick the pop culture can down the road to a spot that is not so "meh." However, since the YOLO meme has inspired passion among literally thousands of people anxious to double down on their degree of cool. the rest of us are forced to suffer the indignity...much as we do when someone uses the "singular they" in speech or--gasp--in writing! While that pronoun misuse might not mean much to the average person (obviously, since almost everyone I hear speak or whose writing I read has used it), ridding the world of people who use the plural pronoun "they" with a singular noun--as in "A speaker should think before they use a plural pronoun with a singular antecedent"--is definitely on my bucket list of things to accomplish. Perhaps, if people ate more superfoods and less (or is it "fewer"?) boneless chicken wings, they could figure all of this out.

Or maybe I should just move to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan in an attempt to establish the new normal in a place where folks actually CARE about such things.

You see, that location is the home of Lake Superior State University, a probably-not-ivy-covered institution of higher learning that every year publishes a list of words (accumulated by submission from around the world) that they (see how easy it is to screw this up?) feel must be obliterated from common usage as being unfit for human consumption.

Last year, for example, the list included the hated "man cave" as well as other notables such as "baby bump," "trickeration," "ginormous," and the aforementioned "new normal." This year's list is a compendium of terms that rival the hated "Gangnam Style" dance craze.

Those terms doomed for exclusion in the 38th annual list are as follows:

"fiscal cliff     kick the can down the road     double down     job creators     YOLO     passion     spoiler alert     bucket list     trending     superfood     boneless wings."

Sadly, today was the first time I'd even heard of YOLO...not surprising, I guess, since famous teen miscreants are not on my daily "must watch for" list, and I am the type that spells out everything in a text message as well as including punctuation. Of course, there is always good old LSSU.

They get more snow than we do in Titletown, too!