Year-ender 2013

Media outlets, almost across the board, reserve this time of year for highlighting what they consider the top stories of the previous twelve months.

It's a no-brainer where I live: monumental rains that touched off extensive floods, causing widespread death and destruction. Combine the event itself with ongoing cleanup, and the local paper may find a way to make it the top two stories!

I've made it a habit, if not a tradition, to list my favorite LUNG posts of the previous year. They are not necessarily any good, mind you. Just my favorite. (I could probably list my least favorite, too – but I've deleted the really bad ones!)

In any case, and in no particular order, here are my favorite posts of the last year:

• Roadside Attractions
• The Grounds Crew
• At the Zoo
• Bad for the Trees
• Banned
• Subwoofers
• Brad Livingston
• Anal Retentive Yadda-yadda
• Let Them Eat Cake

Happy New Year!

Happy Holiday!

Most of the western world shuts down by early evening on December 24th, and doesn't stir again until the 26th.

Even the Internet's whitewater rapids slow to a trickle. But they don't cease entirely. Maybe Santa brought you a new computer, and maybe right now you're under the tree giving it a test drive. If so – lucky you!

Maybe it's a new high speed connection, or something like that.

Or maybe – just maybe – it's late Tuesday night. The stockings are hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas (right) soon would be there. And you're just whiling away the hours with a glass of eggnog, or brandy. Or some other holiday cheer.

Or maybe this is by now a really old post. Maybe you're reading it in April. Who's in first place in the AL Central?

“...I am sure I have always thought of Christmas ... as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of ... when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers...”

Whatever. Happy Holiday!



Happy Xmas! (War Is Over!)

Merry Holiday! (If you want it!)

Banned II (words and phrases)

Most people, I imagine, do not much care about the topic of this post.

But indifference won't stop me. Indifference, after all, is part of the problem. (This post is similar to one I made last August. At that time I acknowledged the Unicorn Hunters and Matt Groening as fellow travelers.)

The topic: words. Words to ban. Words(and phrases) that become inexplicably trendy, and rapidly wear out their welcome in our common lexicon.

This ongoing, partial, and now-updated list includes but is not limited to: own it, old school, shout out, and branding.

Don't use 'em!

Reverse discrimination gets an honorary (if not honorable) mention, sort of a lifetime achievement award. This nonsensical term has been around at least since the days of Allan Bakke, but is no more valid now than then. Bias = bias, no matter what.

I'll ratchet up the nuisance level by adding these mis-used terms and phrases to the list: don't say border when you mean state line or city limits. Don't say film (as in the verb, to film) when you mean videotape (now obsolete) or digitally record visuals. Don't refer to a creek or river's shore when you mean its bank.

Same basic deal with the phrase "start a tradition," but I've commented on that before.

Stickler or fuddy-duddy? Who the hell knows?