I miss Matt Groening’s annual list of forbidden words he used to illustrate in his Life in Hell strip. I wish it came with a license for me to slap those people guilty of such verbal offenses. When it comes to language, I find my fellow Americans to be unimaginable speakers. My vocabulary isn’t spectacular but I’m trying harder to follow the rules. I would even back an English Academy as per the French and Spanish organizations. It’s not about snobbery, it’s about preserving the language so our descendants can make out what we were writing/saying because English didn’t drift into the language of Idiocracy…an amalgamation of swearing, grunts, corporate buzzwords and lame catchphrases.
The Gawker people did make a nice list of things they hope come to an end in 2013. I only disagree about the T-shirt matter, economics will kill off the weaker companies. As for the Apple sticker on one’s car, we work for Apple and it used to be mandatory so security knew which vehicles should be in the crowded lot. If the sticker has become a star-bellied sneetch thing, security might want to go with something more unique. I’m in complete agreement over those disgusting toe shoes. I get it, you want to walk around barefoot like a Flintstone or a Hillbilly yet flip flops in public aren’t enough! Sorry, I’ve had to deal with co-workers who stroll around barefoot as if we’re in their house. How I wish Richard Jeni were alive, he had great rebuttals.
What do you think should be added to the list? My additions are many but Gawker nailed my immediate peeves. I would like to throw in billboards of churches trying to be cool. There are several godbarns around Austin who just aren’t fooling anybody.