Bristol Palin debuted on “Dancing with the Stars” on Monday night, where she referred to “Levi and my’s relationship.”
My’s.
That’s the daughter of Republican leader, Gov. Sarah Palin.
Then it was judge Bruno who referred to the infamous teen mom as “a virgin” at dancing. I thought the one liners were going to start spewing out of Tom Bergeron, but you could see he held them back with a wincing smirk.
Why must people say “Question” before asking a question? Why not just ask the question?
This is an irksome linguistic trend that has now reached advertising geared to women, who seem to say “Question” before asking a question more often than men do, as seen in a new Vagisil ad which is mercifully not available online, but sure enough, it begins with a screen shot of the word, and a woman’s voice saying “Question.” Grr.
I always want to say “Answer!” when I hear the flatly declarative “Question.” Someone told me that it’s a way of acknowledging the interruption. I’ll take, “Hey, got a sec?” or even “Hey” or just “Chexy” instead, but just asking directly is less of an interruption.
It’s verbal spamming. Why must I wait while someone organizes their thoughts? Question: How about organizing your thoughts, then asking the question?
Thank you, and good morning William Safire, wherever you are.
Here’s an annoying linguistic trend; people responding with “I know, right” or just “Right?!” This is even more annoying than the short-lived “Yeah, what’s that about?!” When someone says “Right?!” after I’ve related something — it sounds like they’re saying, “Yeah, I thought of that too, only I didn’t say it.” Well, you didn’t think of it, or you’d have said it. Saying “Right?!” means you’re bereft of comment, opinion, and perhaps even thought.
“Cool” is another dunderhead response that says nothing and goes nowhere, and has moved from the highfalutin circles of skateboarders and 9-year-olds to the imbecilic confines of boardrooms and offices. It’s an ideal conversation stopper, which again informs that the offerer has absolutely nothing to add, only to acknowledge that they’re too unclever to proffer further analysis or even a “Right?!”
This really isn’t new, I suppose, but still irksome, as these expressions join the horrible history of patois with “Groovy,” “I can dig” and “solid.”
(First published May, 2008, but needed repeating.)
Great, through Facebook, we got Betty White to host “SNL.” Now let’s see what we can do about world peace. And getting Katie Couric to pronounce “ing” at the ends of words, instead of saying “een.”
