By Any Other Name...

Don't you just love how language evolves! I have a friend, Ms. M, who insists that you cannot change words. She goes ballistic when another friend talks about "journaling."

"Journal is a noun! You can't just go around adding "-ing" to make nouns into verbs" she preaches. She has similarly disavowed use of words like emailing, blogging, spamming and SIPping (local teacher jargon of little use in the real world, except when it comes to annoying Ms. M.).

I say, "have fun with language," and I laugh when I talk with young whippersnappers who do not know the origin of their own creative expressions like "BAM! You've been boozled." That one is a couple years old, but I still adore it and think fondly of former students who used it with such flair.

Don't you just love it when brand names become common nouns. Scotch Tape and Scotch Whisky... SPAM... Kleenex and Clorox. Some day I would like my very name to become synonymous with great things and ideas. Then you could say, "congratulations, you pulled a VegasBabe," or better yet, "you DID a VegasBabe."

On the other side of word coinage and usage, don't you just hate it when people are repetitive with their use of acronyms:

ATM Matching = Automatic Teller Machine Machine
Okay, that is the only one I can think of, but it is annoying.

Better stop now! I can feel your eyes drooping and that translates into a sagging readership... If I am going to go all wordanalysis on you I will probably have to invite the spammers back to boost my ego...

So, now that you've read this, does my blog smell as sweet?