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Nov. 19, 2009
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game
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JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf
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with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole
in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to
have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How
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JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking
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JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker
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JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater?
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JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change
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Jewish World Review
Oct. 29, 2009
/ 11 Mar-Cheshvan 5770
Annoyed
By
Lewis Grossberger
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
The Most Annoying Word Poll has begun annoying me, mainly because it seems about ten years behind the times. This year's alleged number-one annoyer, "whatever," I haven't heard in a long, long while, although admittedly, I don't have a great deal of discourse with suburban teenage girls.
Meanwhile, an extremely annoying expression I don't see on the list is "Having said that." This phrase has been around forever and if used sparingly, it isn't particularly bothersome, but lately it seems to have reached epidemic proportions. I don't know why.
I say the Marist College Poll should either start surveying a hipper demographic or retire the whole annoying-word thing. (I also say Marist should change its name because I'm always misreading it as Marxist, which is confusing.)
The things that make HST annoying are A. it's pompous and B. it's easily replaced by shorter and less annoying terms such as "still" or "yet" or even "nonetheless," which admittedly is equally pompous but at least isn't being shoved into every op-ed piece and panel discussion in the land. So far.
But the au-courant term that's getting on even more of my many nerves is "baby daddy." Half the articles in print or online describing the burgeoning career of Levi Johnston, who has replaced Paris Hilton as America's number one Celebrity Without Talent, call him "Bristol Palin's baby daddy." I even read one reference (In EWOnline's PopWatch—no pun intended there, I assume) as "Sarah Palin's grandbaby daddy."
BD seems to have jumped into the mainstream from African-American slang, having been popularized in rap songs and black-oriented movies. The reader-written online Urban Dictionary has a funny (to me, anyway), not to mention funky, also not to mention racist, definition of the phrase, apparently contributed by an embittered young lady:
Usually a broke ass black man; Who you met through a friend and had sex wit when you was upset and confused. Now you don had his baby and he dont pay child support and denies yo son ray ray. He just my baby daddy
But now the term seems to denote any unmarried father and somehow, having leapt into white usage, it appears to be losing its sense of mocking opprobrium and is becoming all cutesy-poo. Aw, isn't that sweet? He's a baby daddy.
I suppose the extra four words involved in using "the father of Bristol Palin's baby" would impose a too-heavy burden on our slacker culture. But "Bristol's impregnator" is nice and short. Or maybe we could bring back "cad." Whatever. Having said that, I contend it's worth the effort to retire "baby daddy," if only to cease annoying me.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment on JWR contributor and humorist Lewis Grossberger's column by clicking here.
Previously:
08/13/09: Better-than-most-fall-TV-previews fall TV preview
07/01/09: Many saddened by inability to join national outpouring of grief over Jackson
06/25/09: Tweeting the American Revolution
06/17/09: Who were the Collyer brothers? (Be the first to answer and win a basement full of old newspapers)
06/11/09: What we learn from the new Hitler photos
05/28/09: Beware: Don't Fall into the Clutches of the Hugger-Mugger
© 2009, Lewis Grossberger
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