belle in bloom

Words we don't use?

This article fascinated me. In my personal opinion, the headline should more appropriately read "Words we [the English language police] don't [want anyone to] say [or use]."

Needless to say, I will use take this opportunity to opine about a plethora of the submissions. (And just for fun, any words/phrases from the list that I purposefully use will be in red.)

First of all, this entry particularly amused me: "Verbing nouns, in general. As Calvin once said to Hobbes, 'It weirds the language.'"

Two things:

• 1) The submitter 'verbed a noun' by using a noun (verb) as a verb; and
• 2) The submitter uses an example of an adjective (weird), not a noun, being used as a verb.

I'd bet that the submitter realizes the irony of his/her submission, but if not, that would be even funnier.

School: some thoughts / observations / musings

1) How many stories about someone getting shoved off a subway platform does it take for me to develop a phobia about someone shoving me off a subway platform? Apparently, just one. Thanks to the NY Daily News, I'm also afraid of falling in between the platform and a subway train, a subway train running over someone while I'm on it, pickpockets, and guys flashing their junk at me.

2) Grad school is HARD. I'm not kidding. I'll admit to whining to my husband over the weekend: "The only things I hate about school are all the reading and all the homework," and "I used to be good at school...what happened?"