Thursday, March 31, 2011

Watched the language take a kicking this morning.

The local TeeWee news station had a reporter down in Houston to cover the NCAA Final Four tourney. She was giving a live report in the dark stadium parking lot at 0mygod30 this morning, and somehow managed to work the word "just" into every sentence, like a verbal tic. Then they cut back to the newsroom, where the weather chick proceeded to do the same thing with "really". ("It's really only going to get up to about 45 today. But we'll really be watching this front move through which, really, is going to increase the chance for rain tomorrow afternoon..." Really?)

If the anchordude had started doing it with "meow" or "fnord", I'd have known they were screwing with me.

We then go to a commercial, where a satisfied-looking Cletus says of a local car dealer, by way of a testimonial: "I recommend all my friends to Joe Smith!" causing roomie to come running into the room, wondering why I was frothing "Speak English, you goober!" at the televisor.

Oh, it's going to be one of those days, I can just really tell.
.

19 comments:

  1. That almost sorta just really sounds like a lot of English teachers that need to loose their kinda jobs I guess, you know?

    ReplyDelete
  2. John Peddie (Toronto)8:24 AM, March 31, 2011

    @ Anonymous 8:14

    That'd be Totally Awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Now you starting to understand why I quit watching TeeWee?

    Roberta must be pretty conflicted about her part in this, but I don't hold her responsible for what happens in the other end of the building.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Tam,
    The "just" is how I recognize a born-again Christian. Once you're in that world, prayer circles become common, "Lord we just thank you for everything and just ask that you look out for everyone and just help brother Joe with his struggles with infidelity..."

    ReplyDelete
  5. "Oh, it's going to be one of those days, I can just really tell."

    And that's going to make it different from other days how exactly???

    ReplyDelete
  6. Well, really, if the Evil Republicans would just stop with their Tuition Rate Increases, there just would be no problems, really, with people just really learning to speak English properly, now really.

    ReplyDelete
  7. og stole my thinder. Really.


    wv: jarduct - some kind of gland opening in a Marine

    ReplyDelete
  8. This is why watching coverage of the difficulties at the power plants in Japan is bad for my health.

    Jim

    ReplyDelete
  9. This reminds me of watching The One's last press conference. Not that I would probably do much better under that kind of atmosphere, but when he is the slightest bit off the teleprompter the Noted Speaker "um"'s every third word. For someone who has such a reputation in media circles as a great orator, and a profound belief in the power of messaging, when speaking when it matters, off-the-cuff, he does very poorly.
    -8notch

    ReplyDelete
  10. All I can do is offer a metaphorical cookie or beer. Smacking television personalities around with a stick, while satisfying, gets one talked about!

    ReplyDelete
  11. If one can recommend a soul to God, one can recommend a friend to Joe Smith.

    Valid but archaic - and possibly he wasn't using it correctly. But the construction is valid.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Irregardless of how they may speak, I could care less what those talking heads have to say.

    {ducks, reaches for Red Adair asbestos underoos}

    ReplyDelete
  13. Sigivald,

    One commends a soul to God. One recommends an auto dealer to one's friends.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I'd like to know an auto dealer I could recommend to my friends. Then maybe I could find said friends and recommend them to the aforementioned dealer.

    Really.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Wednesday's headline of the Zionsville Times Sentinel, our local weekly:
    "Two local schools loose four star rating"

    What those four star ratings did upon release was not mentioned.

    The byline? The managing editor.

    ReplyDelete
  16. You mockin' mah cultural heritage.

    Down here we don't speak english -- we speak Amurcan.

    Goatroper

    ReplyDelete
  17. Maybe Joe Smith is the Imfamous Cannibal Car Dealer, and Cletus is getting a cut (forgive me) of what he sends to Joe.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Infamous? It's late.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.