On the chat today, I told Geoff how my kids thought I must be ancient because they laughed when I said something like, "He gets his jollies from...." Geoff mentioned that he used to use the words "keen" and "swell," but of course they aren't used now.
What are other words that have "gone out of style," so to speak?
Heh. There must be thousands of words and phrases like this that cause us to show our age, or perhaps we recall as 'quaint' sayings of our parents.
Only today I said to a colleague 'You bet your sweet bippy' * and the said colleague looked at me as if I was speaking another language.
* If you're too young to remember this was a catchphrase on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in, a TV show that, I'm embarrassed to see, ran some 40-45 years ago.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Yesterday it was revealed that Governor Rick Scott of Florida, upon taking office, issued a directive that from then on no communication was to have the words "climate change" or "global warming" within it. Government scientists say this makes discussing environmental problems much more difficult (probably an understatement). If you were working in a position that required using those words, what would you do?
Apparently the Disney Corporation higher-ups were not happy that employees had taken to referring to the company as 'Mousechwitz' (spelling?) so they issued a decree that anyone found using the term would be fired on the spot. Within hours, their wage-slaves started calling the place 'Duckenwald' instead.
I'm sure that Floridians can also be creative in this way to subvert similar diktats.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Well, I certainly agree with "global warming." It's a stupid term that doesn't adequate describe climate change. However, I am always against censoring of words, which is absolutely what this is.
I've heard it said that Boston had a record breaking amount of global warming dumped on it this winter. That notwithstanding, it's pretty hard to argue that weather patterns have not changed in recent decades. Human causes are clear in such areas as the Sahel region of North Africa, where humans have stripped vegetation, which has led to desertification. Some argue that the root cause is decreasing carbon sequestration - a theory that's more demonstrable than is rising carbon dioxide levels in the upper atmosphere.
Originally posted by Proofreader:If you were working in a position that required using those words, what would you do? First off I would banish the words 'Rick' and 'Scott' from all communications.
That notwithstanding, it's pretty hard to argue that weather patterns have not changed in recent decades. Human causes are clear in such areas as the Sahel region of North Africa, where humans have stripped vegetation, which has led to desertification. Some argue that the root cause is decreasing carbon sequestration - a theory that's more demonstrable than is rising carbon dioxide levels in the upper atmosphere. 
