There is now a disease, I think, inflecting the English language worldwide; how about making a list of aggravated words - see the pattern:
burglar burgled burgling burgle all surely concise?
but no - people prefer to write burglarise
from which they then get burglarised wait for: burglarisator
I reckon it can be carried further burglarisation
and burglarisationise
and eventually burglarisationisated
am I burgling on too much?
Very often seen nowadays is the hyper-professionalised "word" (it's longer - therefore thought to carry more clout - like those mediaeval broadswords the fighter could hardly lift); here's
incentivise (from incentive - like motive
from which we get incentivisation from incentivise - and "motivise"
no we used to be content with motivate and motivation (not motivisation)
imagine reading a job advert for a new Head of a Bank
it might include: "you will be incentivised by ..."
a massive salary quite out of proportion to the good you might do,
though auguring (augurisating? augurisationising?) the scale of harm
which you might achieve ...
Such adverts exist; I've seen them.
This cancerous growth in the word-system should surely be arrested (arrestivisated?).
First, the situation has to be comprehensively diagnosed and many examples assembled.
Do any other hyper-inflationisated words thumping around the cosmos and eventually being stored in an amazingly ungreen hypercooled cave owned by Google in Colorado (I think they are relocationisating to Alaska to save electricity costs?) occur to you?
M
BURGLARY IN FLORIDA
When southern Florida resident Nathan Radlich's house was burglarized
recently, thieves ignored his wide screen plasma TV, his VCR, and even
left his Rolex watch. What they did take, however, was 'a generic white
cardboard box filled with a grayish-white powder.' (That's the
way the police report described it.)
A spokesman for the Fort Lauderdale police said, 'that it looked similar to
high grade cocaine and they'd probably thought they'd hit
the big time.' Later, Nathan stood in front of numerous TV cameras and
pleaded with the burglars: 'Please return the cremated remains of my sister,
Gertrude. She died three years ago.'
The next morning, the bullet-riddled corpse of a local drug dealer known as
Hoochie Pevens* was found on Nathan's doorstep. The cardboard box was there
too; about half of Gertrude's ashes remained
Scotch taped to the box was this note which said: Hoochie sold us the bogus
blow, so we wasted Hoochie. Sorry we snorted your sister. No hard feelings.
Have a nice day.
And you thought California was the land of fruits and nuts!
*no novelist could have had the temerity or ingenuity to invent such a name - therefore this story must be true
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Dengl 22 New York Times runs proposal for Peace between Israel and Palestinians
If not now: when?
I was sent this article. It suggests to Israeli "hardliners" that the prospect of a secure half-cake today, is better than a whole cake in the unforseeable future, with a great deal of indigestion on the way. I might be tempted, if I was in Israel as the "midliner" I reckon myeslf to be, to go for the half-and-now.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/opinion/28friedman.html?emc=eta1
In the first century BCE, Babylonian born Hillel (later known as Hillel the Elder) migrated to the Land of Israel to study and worked as a woodcutter, eventually becoming the most influential force in Jewish life. Hillel is said to have lived in such great poverty that he was sometimes unable to pay the admission fee to study Torah, and because of him that fee was abolished. He was known for his kindness, gentleness, concern for humanity. One of his most famous sayings, recorded in Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers, a tractate of the Mishnah), is
"If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?"
The Hillel organization, a network of Jewish college student organizations, is named for him. Hillel and his descendants established academies of learning and were the leaders of the Jewish community in the Land of Israel for several centuries. The Hillel dynasty ended with the death of Hillel II in 365 CE.
I was sent this article. It suggests to Israeli "hardliners" that the prospect of a secure half-cake today, is better than a whole cake in the unforseeable future, with a great deal of indigestion on the way. I might be tempted, if I was in Israel as the "midliner" I reckon myeslf to be, to go for the half-and-now.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/opinion/28friedman.html?emc=eta1
In the first century BCE, Babylonian born Hillel (later known as Hillel the Elder) migrated to the Land of Israel to study and worked as a woodcutter, eventually becoming the most influential force in Jewish life. Hillel is said to have lived in such great poverty that he was sometimes unable to pay the admission fee to study Torah, and because of him that fee was abolished. He was known for his kindness, gentleness, concern for humanity. One of his most famous sayings, recorded in Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers, a tractate of the Mishnah), is
"If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?"
The Hillel organization, a network of Jewish college student organizations, is named for him. Hillel and his descendants established academies of learning and were the leaders of the Jewish community in the Land of Israel for several centuries. The Hillel dynasty ended with the death of Hillel II in 365 CE.
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