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Jewish World Review May 15, 2003 / 13 Iyar, 5763
Richard Lederer
Language at the cellular level
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | Charles Harrington Elster, best-selling language author and my radio-active co-host on "A Way with Words," shares some phone-y thoughts about 2003:
I hereby proclaim 2003 to be the year of the cell phone, which is fast becoming cellphone so we might as well get with it. Everywhere you go these days you see people walking around with a cellphone glued to their ear. Theyre jabbering away, oblivious to the effect theyre having on othersan effect that has been described (in The Dictionary of the Future) as "secondhand speech," the verbal equivalent of secondhand smoke. What to call these cellphone addicts, these wireless public prattlers? Allow me to propose cellfish (or perhaps cellphish), which could also be employed as an adjective. Now, what to call those few sad souls who still dont possess the means of instant and constant communication? How about cellphless? Finally, we need a word for the way these cellfish drive while theyre yakking on their cranial appendages. (And I think we can do better than badly or erratically.) Allow me to propose "celling out," or perhaps "cellin out" (on analogy with "freaking out," "dorking out," etc.), which we can define as "lousy driving caused by blabbing on a cellphone." So there you have it: 2003, the Year of the Cellout. Yall drive carefully now, yhear? We hear a lot these days about brinksmanship, especially regarding the crises in North Korea and the Middle East. But it should be brinkmanship. The first known citation is a February 1956 speech in Hartford, Connecticut, by presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson. Stevenson upbraided John Foster Dulles, Dwight D. Eisenhowers secretary of state, for his near confrontation with Communist China and his "boasting of his brinkmanship the art of bringing us to the edge of the abyss." Once again the cursed gratuitous s our penchant for tacking on an extra hiss has struck our language. Here are other examples that prove we English speakers dont know our s from a hole in the ground: THE BUCS STOMP HERE, blared the front-page headline of the San Diego Union-Tribune on Monday, January 27. The reference, of course, was to Tampa Bays 48-21 route of the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII, played here in San Diego. The punderful headline brings to mind this pun-ishing riddle: Whats the cost of a two-dollar pair of earrings? A buck an ear! Enjoy this writer's work? Why not sign-up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Richard Lederer is a language maven. More than a million of his books, which have been Book-of-the-Month Club and Literary Guild alternate selections, are in print. He is the host of "A Way With Words," on KPBS, San Diego Public Radio, and a regular guest on weekend "All Things Considered." He was awarded the Golden Gavel for 2002 by Toastmasters International. Comment by clicking here.
05/08/03: I don't duck spelling debates
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