By Elaine Viets
As I write this, Hurricane Milton is barreling, charging, barging, and otherwise on its way to wreak havoc on Florida.
The hurricane is supposed to go up the state’s west coast, but hurricanes are unreliable. Their paths can shift any moment.
Don and I live in a condo on Florida’s east coast near Miami, where the state is only 110 miles wide. We’re supposed to just get sideswiped by Milton.
Right now, a tornado is twisting down Alligator Alley, the main road across the southern part of the state. The tornado is currently 16 miles from my house. We’re also under a tropical storm warning and a flood warning.
The wind is gusting outside, and condo residents have been warned not to walk across the pool deck that joins our two buildings. At least one resident was knocked over by the wind.
And we aren’t even in the hurricane’s direct path. We weren’t ordered to evacuate.
Since there’s a chance we can lose internet service or electricity on Thursday, I’m writing a blog that you can jump in and add your comments. Recently TKZ’s Deb Gorman invited us to pet our peeves here: bit.ly/3U0gFoQ
I’d like to continue that thread with some of my favorite – and not so favorite – new words and phrases. Here goes:
Weather event: Webster says an event is “something that happens.” Or, “a noteworthy happening. A social occasion or activity. An adverse or damaging medical occurrence, for example, a heart attack or other cardiac event.”
So yes, a tropical storm, a flood, and a freaking hurricane are definitely “something that happens.” But they’re not an event. Nobody wants to attend these events. Not when innocent people are killed. So call these disasters out by their proper names.
I was today years old: This translates as “I just realized.” Some of these observations are fun to read, like this one from Jay on X: “I was today years old when I found out California has a bigger population than Canada.”
But jeez Louise, that’s a clumsy phrase. Let it fade away soon.
“Clean” as a noun. Clean is creeping into commercials as a noun. Hucksters for various kinds of soaps tell us their product is “the best clean for my family.” Or the “best clean for my clothes.”
Stop this abuse. You’ve gone clean out of your mind.
Doomscrolling. Now that’s a new word I can embrace. It means “continually scrolling through and reading depressing or worrying content on a social media or news site, especially on a phone.”
I don’t know about you, but I’m doing a lot of doomscrolling right now. About the election, and the hurricane.
Which brings me back to the beginning of this blog. The hurricane that’s about to devastate Florida Wednesday night. If you want to help people, please check out the link below.
Meanwhile, wish me luck, and all the people in Milton’s path.
And tell me some of your words and phrases.
How can you help people hit by the hurricane? Here are some reliable organizations recommended by ABC News. bit.ly/3zVUvNR
Stay safe and may the “weather event” spare your home.
Thanks, Sharon. Don and I were extremely lucky. We came through the storm without any damage.
Hoping you came out unscathed. We were living in Orlando in 2004, when 4 hurricanes crisscrossed the state. We were lucky; some friends not so much.
I remember that year, Terry. and who would have thought that Orlando would get hit by hurricanes.
Stay safe!
There are business phrases that I would be happy to not hear again: Circle back; Reach out; Cold call emails that start in the middle of a conversation. Dude. My life is all time stamped. We have never spoken. Now we never will.
Whenever hear someone say, “I’ll reach out to you,” I’m tempted to reach out and strangle them. So far I haven’t acted on this impulse.
As Milton was bouncing off of 200mph I took a deep breath. Someone asked if that was strong. The Joplin Tornado in 2011 had sustained winds of 200 mph. 300 pound concrete parking barriers were picked up and thrown 60 yards.
Heed warnings. Don’t play.
We were both pretty scared, Alan, but we’re lucky the hurricane and tornadoes missed us.
Hope you made it through the hurricane with no ill effects. Stay safe.
We did, Kay. Hope our luck holds for the rest of the season.
I worked as a newspaper reporter for 10 years before going to work for a municipal government for 20-plus. I used to have a massive list of bureaucratic words/phrases that made me insane. I’m fortunately 8 years removed from it. But one or two still linger in my mind much as I try to forget.
One is task as a verb. You’ve been tasked to handle media interviews
strategic planning . . . Isn’t all planning strategic (or why would you do it?)
These days gift as a verb annoys me. As does the use of space in the publishing industry “We’re selling well in the mystery genre space . . . ”
I’m sure there are many more, but I’ve blocked them out.
Good ones, Kelly. Or should I say bad ones. “Tasked” has been badly mangled and “strategic” is redundant. A job like that could drive a wordsmith crazy.
Hope you are okay, Elaine and that the damage isn’t too bad where you are at.
The political term “optics,” as in, “the optics of insulting voters hurts him,” grates still on me. “At the end of the day” needs to be ended. “Thought leader”—I prefer to think for myself, thanks 🙂
“Doomscrolling” on the other hand, is absolutely perfect. It captures being compelled to continue checking the news online perfectly.
Related aside: one of the challenging things about writing a mystery set in the 1980s is to not use a more recent expression.
“Related aside: one of the challenging things about writing a mystery set in the 1980s is to not use a more recent expression.”
Glad you’re working on that, Dale. Nothing drags me out of novel faster than future slang. “Optics” in the usage you mentioned is an ugly word. Haven’t encountered “thought leader” yet and hope I never do.
Thought leaders are all over motivational speaking and pundits.
I’ll try to stay away from them, Alan.
As Kelly mentioned, I dislike nouns that are turned into verbs. “Ping” was popular for a while: “Ping me in a week.” Active verbs are great but they don’t seem to cut down on sloppy, bloated language.
“To be perfectly honest” – Is anyone ever imperfectly honest?
“At this point in time” – as opposed to which other point in time?
“Hopefully” – I’m waiting for someone to say “Cynically” instead.
Elaine, at this point in time, to be perfectly honest, hopefully Milton weakened enough to leave you in peace.
One reason an agent took me on, Debbie, was that I used “hopefully” correctly in my book. “Honest is another word I’m wary of. As in: “I didn’t do it. Honest.” I immediately think they are lying.
Hope you’re safe, Elaine. (And thanks for the shout-out!)
We have some friends in Florida near St. Cloud. They have 5 young children, and we’re getting reports filtering in that they’re okay, which is a big relief.
When I was working, I heard lots of phrases that were just plain irritating. Some have already been mentioned here: Circle back, at the end of the day, and reach out were and still are some of the most aggravating.
Once in a leadership meeting at the cancer center where I worked, the director told me that he’d “circle back later with me” on whatever I asked. I told him okay and I’d bring my own wagon.
He was not amused…go figure.
Hope you have a great day, sans hurricane very soon.
What a relief to know your friends are OK, Deb. You’ve mentioned some of my last favorites. Although when my boss said, “I’ll circle back to you,” I imagined the dimwit running around in circles, which was accurate.
Abuse of ‘literally’ literally makes me angry. However, it does not literally make me blow my stack.
Don’t say “John’s head was literally on fire” when you mean he was blushing extremely.
‘Literally’ is the opposite of ‘figuratively.’ It doesn’t mean ‘really’ or ‘extremely’ or any such quality for which we have great words.
I will not-literally deep six your story if you tell me “When the boss got finished with MacAllister, he knew he had been literally thrown under the bus.” I will, however, deep six your story.
Literally has been literally overdone. I have seen the light (not literally) and don’t use it any more.
I can think of three that drive me crazy.
1. Graduated high school
You graduate from school. I graduated at the top of my class, or last year, or finally, but this is like saying I retired my career.
2. Peed my pants
Really? You actually passed your pants out of your body?
3. My bad
I worked on a project with a guy who was working toward his PhD. He made a dumb mistake and texted me, “Sorry, my bad.” I’m thinking, what are you, a fifth grader?
“My bad” from an adult sets my teeth on edge.
Me, too!
It sounds like an apology from someone who’s so arrogant they don’t think they need to apologize. 😤
[Re-sent–did first effort get lost in cyberspace?]
Abuse of ‘literally’ literally makes me literally angry. I will not, however, literally blow my stack.
‘Literally’ is the opposite of ‘figuratively.’ So do not say ‘Zeke’s head was literally on fire’ when you mean he was blushing extremely. (If your figure is any good, you don’t need a amplifying adverb anyway. What adverb would strengthen ‘Zeke’s head was on fire when Tanya finished reaming him out’? (Which Tanya did not literally do.)
If your story tells me that after MacAllister’s boss got done with him, he realized he had been literally thrown under the bus, I will deep six your story. Not literally. But I will deep six it.