Words that drive me crazy

Here are some words that drive me crazy, some are neo-logisms, some words which once had perfectly fine, even noble, meanings but are now being twisted and distorted into something ugly.

Pro-active--this is a non-sensical word, which doesn't mean what people think it means. It is used to indicate a policy or practice that is not reactive. However, pro- is not an antonym for re-. "Pro" means to support or favor. When someone or some organization says they will be "pro-active," it is usually an expression of vague intention.

Militant--has become the state of art to describe an irregular fighter for terrorist organizations like Hezbollah or Hamas. It used to mean a grass roots activist in a left wing political party. A New Yorker article in the late 1940s described Leon Birkhead's League for Democracy as "militant" defenders of civil liberties.

Dissident--a while back, NPR described the breakaway violence-prone splinter of the Irish Republican Army as "dissidents." The term that once described brave men and women like Andrei Sakharov who spoke and acted for democratic rights against the Soviet dictatorship is now being applied to thugs who have more in common with the Gulag masters and the KGB than with real dissidents. Apparently, the term "dissident" is used in Irish political discourse in this manner., but that is no excuse for the journalists of NPR to adopt it.

Fox News Presents "It's a Wonderful Life"

From the Jimmy Kimmel Show. Trailer sarts at about 2:12/

Great Moments in Leftism pokes fun at DSA

Great Moments in Leftism is a cool new cartoon blog that pokes fun at, mainly, the American left. It is pretty damn funny. Here's one the takes aim at DSA, Democratic Socialists  of America. (Here is the link to the cartoon  on the GMIL site)

I particularly liked United Front, Meanwhile in Pyongyang (which shows a profound understanding of the real North Korean ideology), and Mother Jones  reads Mother Jones.  Browse the site.  You may find your own favorites.

You can also like GMIL on Facebook and follow on Twitter @gmilcomic

Concerning the Disconceting Use of Concerting

Listening to  NPR and  sports talk radio in the last several,I've noticed people saying this or that negative development is "concerning" when I expected them to say "diconcerting."

I hope this creeping usage is stopped before it spreads further.

Here are some examples from the Grammarist blog

”But each time we hear it, it’s surprising and rather shocking, specifically as it relates to cancer. It’s quite concerning.” [New York Times (1999)]
Ne’eman’s remarks should be concerning to “every citizen who cares about what happens in Israel in terms of its values and democracy.” [Jewish Telegraphic Agency (2009)]
Construction union Ucatt said the announcement was very concerning. [BBC (2012)]
Ms Gillard omitted one of the most concerning and disheartening statistics. [The Age (2012)]

Since concerning also means about, in reference to, or regarding, this usage can  be confusing.

Besides "disconcerting," there are other, better words that could be used "unsettling," “worrisome,” “troubling,” and “alarming.” Use them.  Plea se.

You might just be a lefty...

if when you start to do a search for "stone bridges" and Google suggests "Jay Lovestone."

Everyday is Once in a Century

How many times did you hear or read that yesterday December 12, 2012 was once in a century? Dozens, if not hundreds. At my large workplace, fully staffed and many working overtime for the holiday mail, the social and recreation committee gave out two prizes every hour at, you guessed it, 12 clicks past the hour. And, every time, it was said this is a "once is a century" day. Guess what? Today, December 13, 2012 is once is a century. Seriously, there are 12 dates every century where the month, day, and year have the same numerals. So, it seems to me that it would have been far more accurate to have said that "December 12 is twelfth is a decade."

Separated at Birth?

Rise of the Slacktivist

Sortable The Rise of the Slacktivist

The Wonders of G+ Juxtaposition

Wow, these two posts showed up nest to each other in my G+ account today. I think, Karl Jung called in synchronicity.

Here's the link to the story on Wisconsin Gov. Walker's official time records showing very little time spent on official job duties and much more spent on "personal time" Here's the link for the item on shorter work week.

I'm Gonna Marry a Corporation

With the second anniversairy of the Citizen's United ruling approaching, I'm planning a series of posts on the issue of corporate personhood. Let's start with something on the lighter side. This song was written by Barabara Joye and performed by Atlanta area singer Anita Paycheck.

I hate beets

I'm pretty much always the opposite of a finicky eater.  When I was a kid, if you put in on my plate, or based it around the table at a family Thanksgiving, I would eat a small helping.  With one exception--beets. If beets were on my place, I wouldn't eat anything on the plate.

My distaste for beets is so deep that I couldn't remember what they taste like, only that they are disgusting.


But now I know. According beet expert and advocate Irving Goldman beets "taste like dirt."

Holiday Music That Doesn't Suck #1

There is lots of Christmas and holiday music that sucks.  Sacchrin, commercial, routine are adjectives that frequently apply. . Even great artists too often make terrible Christmas albums.  Bob Dylan's Christmas in the Heart is my pick for the most most disappointing holiday album, though Aretha Franklin's This Christmas is another recent effort that fell short.

On the other hand, there are lots of bargain holiday CDs in the stores and I have found some enjoyable CDs after a patient search.  For 2011, I'm doing some searching on You Tube.  I'll share some of my faves in the coming days.

I'm starting with a group I had never heard of--The Sonics, a 1960s Seattle garage band, contemporaries of The Kingsmen, Paul Revere and the Raiders, and others, and a influence on NIrvana and the White Stripes.

"I Don't Believe in Christmas" is a take off of Chuck Berry's Too Much Monkey Business., which was the source for Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues

I'm Going to Marry a Corporation

Lyrics © by Barbara Joye Music and guitar accompaniment by Reid Jenkins Vocal by Atlanta country diva Anita Paycheck

Goldman Sachs Letter on Occupy Wall Street

Dear Investor:

Up until now, Goldman Sachs has been silent on the subject of the protest movement known as Occupy Wall Street. That does not mean, however, that it has not been very much on our minds. As thousands have gathered in Lower Manhattan, passionately expressing their deep discontent with the status quo, we have taken note of these protests. And we have asked ourselves this question:

How can we make money off them?

The answer is the newly launched Goldman Sachs Global Rage Fund, whose investment objective is to monetize the Occupy Wall Street protests as they spread around the world. At Goldman, we recognize that the capitalist system as we know it is circling the drain – but there’s plenty of money to be made on the way down.

The Rage Fund will seek out opportunities to invest in products that are poised to benefit from the spreading protests, from police batons and barricades to stun guns and forehead bandages. Furthermore, as clashes between police and protesters turn ever more violent, we are making significant bets on companies that manufacture replacements for broken windows and overturned cars, as well as the raw materials necessary for the construction and incineration of effigies.

It would be tempting, at a time like this, to say “Let them eat cake.” But at Goldman, we are actively seeking to corner the market in cake futures. We project that through our aggressive market manipulation, the price of a piece of cake will quadruple by the end of 2011.

Please contact your Goldman representative for a full prospectus. As the world descends into a Darwinian free-for-all, the Goldman Sachs Rage Fund is a great way to tell the protesters, “Occupy this.”

We haven’t felt so good about something we’ve sold since our souls.

Sincerely,

Lloyd Blankfein
Chairman, Goldman Sachs

Negotiating Like It's 1999

The AFL-CIO has a new, informative, clever website on Collective Bargaining. It features three entertaining, funny videos by director/writer Negin Farsad, producer Justin Krebs, writer Lee Camp and punchup artist Katie Halper of Vaguely Qualified productions. Here's  the first one.  Others will follow in coming days.

Gloria: 4 different songs, 4 rock eras

Russell Fox devoted his Friday 70-80s music video post to Laura Branigan's "Gloria". It took me only a few seconds to realize that this wasn't a cover of Van Morrison and Them's "Gloria." which isn't all that surprising since it was a big, big hit-probably outselling the Them 45 and the Shadows of Knight cover.*   I realized that I had heard the song before. Another generation would think of "Gloria" as yet another song by U2. And, what do you know there was a doo wop song "Gloria" a hit for the Cadillacs in 1954, though this "Gloria" was a 1948 hit for the Mills Brothers and recorded by several artists a few years earlier.


I wonder if there is another song title that has been given to so many different songs.

Vote for your favorite in the comments. (Mine would be for Van Morrison/Them.)




There's also a video of Van Morrison performing the song with blues great John Lee Hooker.







*The Shadows had slightly altered the song's lyrics, replacing Morrison's original "she comes to my room, then she made me feel alright" with "she called out my name, that made me feel alright" after influential Chicago station WLS had banned Them's original version. That gave the band a hit record

Royal wedding

In case you're wondering, the only Royals I am watching are in Kansas City.

Wonders of the web

 Image via Wikipedia

1. Russia 1900-1915 in color photographs.  These are beautiful and teach a lot about history.

Sergey Mikhaylovich Prokudin-Gorsky was a pioneering Russian photographer. These photos were taken three in rapid succession with different filters, which then allowed a composite color photograph to be constructed.

2. The Band  this is a great fan site,  from Norway, though the site is in English.

3. Colorblindor This is an excellent site on color blindness with tests, resources, and essays.  Highly recommended.  Teachers, parents, graphic designers, as well as the color blind, will find it useful.

The joy of fonts

Image via WikipediaHere's an interesting post from Kieran Healy on Crooked Timber on "Cognition and Comic Sans"

setting information in hard-to-read fonts, including Comic Sans Italic, led to better retention amongst research subjects because of “disfluency”. When you have to work harder to read it, you remember it better.
Abstract: Previous research has shown that disfluency – the subjective experience of difficulty associated with cognitive operations – leads to deeper processing. Two studies explore the extent to which this deeper processing engendered by disfluency interventions can lead to improved memory performance. Study 1 found that information in hard-to-read fonts was better remembered than easier to read information in a controlled laboratory setting. Study 2 extended this finding to high school classrooms. The results suggest that superficial changes to learning materials could yield significant improvements in educational outcomes.

How elite am I?

There's a new quiz making the rounds and rapidly becoming a meme.  It's all based on a  column  by Charles Murray, the neo-racist author of the Bell Curve and now a scholar (sic) at the American Enterprise Institute.

1. Can you talk about "Mad Men?" Yes
2. Can you talk about the "The Sopranos?" A little.
3. Do you know who replaced Bob Barker on "The Price Is Right?" Yes, Drew Cary, and it it the New Price is Right
4. Have you watched an Oprah show from beginning to end? Yes.
5. Can you hold forth animatedly about yoga?  No.
5. How about pilates? No.
5. How about skiing? No.
6. Mountain biking?   No
7. Do you know who Jimmie Johnson is?  Yes, I know three. (a) Race car driver, (b) ex-football coach, (c) modern blues musician.  The desired, right answer is (a)
8. Does the acronym MMA mean nothing to you?  Mixed martial arts.
9. Can you talk about books endlessly? Sure.
10. Have you ever read a "Left Behind" novel? No.
11. How about a Harlequin romance? Yes.
12. Do you take interesting vacations? Interesting to me.
13. Do you know a great backpacking spot in the Sierra Nevada? No. I don't even own a backpack.
14. What about an exquisite B&B overlooking Boothbay Harbor?  I don't even have an idea where that is.
15. Would you be caught dead in an RV? Yes
16. Would you be caught dead on a cruise ship?  Maybe
17. Have you ever heard of of Branson, Mo? Yes, but I've been there twice.
18. Have you ever attended a meeting of a Kiwanis Club? No.
19. How about the Rotary Club? No.
20. Have you lived for at least a year in a small town? I grew up in a town of 12,000 and lived in smaller towns for a year or more.
21. Have you lived for a year in an urban neighborhood in which most of your neighbors did not have college degrees? Yes.
22. Have you spent at least a year with a family income less than twice the poverty line?  Yes.
23. Do you have a close friend who is an evangelical Christian? Yes.
24. Have you ever visited a factory floor? Yes.
25. Have you worked on one? Yes 


I scored six out of twenty-five for an elitist score of 24%, which is better (worse) than Russell's 30 percent --eight out of twenty-seven.