More from The Takeaway
pop culture
"Mission Accomplished!" ...? What phrase would you retire?
By Adnaan Wasey
Wednesday, April 30 2008
Five years ago, on May 1, 2003, President Bush marked the end of major combat in Iraq with a nationally televised speech from the USS Abraham Lincoln. The Iraq war continued and the giant 'mission accomplished' banner hung from the warship has come to symbolize its opposite.
But there are other phrases that have changed in meaning over time and it's time now to stop using them. What phrase or word do you want to retire?
mytake@thetakeaway.org | 1-877-8-MY-TAKE
This is a different kind of radio show. You are a big part of it. Send us your story and we'll read or play back the best of them on air.
Here's how:
Leave a message for John and Adaora on our SpinVox line — 1-877-8-MY-TAKE (1-877-869-8253)
Email us from your computer or phone — mytake@thetakeaway.org.
Or click on "get in the mix" to add your story to our Web site.
Can we get rid of "the fundamentals are good"? Didn't Hoover say it before the depression? What does it really say anyway - something like, "Yes, we are still capitalists" or "Money still exists whether or not you've got any"? What a dumb phrase.
Posted by Gaines Hubbell, 8:22 a.m. Thursday, May 1 2008 Permalink
"Impacted," I learned to my chagrin, actually can technically be used as a verb, in the case of extremely large impacts; i.e., a meteor "impacted" the earth. See Webster's New Collegeiate, 11th Ed.
I would retire anything with "ize"; i.e., incentivize.
Posted by RJ, 8:32 a.m. Thursday, May 1 2008 Permalink
I am glad you are doing the "phrase" show today. I've been listening all week, and have heard "at the end of the day" used several times and wanted to write and say "please stop!". So now here's my chance! Might I suggest that you all do what I did and get a copy of "The Dimwit's Dictionary" by Robert Hartwell Fiske? It is a sometimes-irritating book, but I guarantee that using it as a frequent reference for a few weeks will clean your language of moribund metaphors (his term for "at the end of the day") and other overused phrases.
Thanks -
JP
Posted by John Pinamonti, 8:33 a.m. Thursday, May 1 2008 Permalink
I'd like to see the letter "h" retired from the pronunciation of words that do not have an "h" in them. I don't know whether it's a fad, a dialect or a speech impediment, but there is no "h" in "street" or "strike" or "stress", yet many tv and radio reporters say "shtreet" or "conshtruction" or the like.
Posted by Doug, 8:50 a.m. Thursday, May 1 2008 Permalink
This is a copy of my email to WNYC Listener Services:
PLEASE get rid of that awful programme "The Takeway". I don't tune in to WNYC to hear loud, mindless chatter (and it's often VERY loud)--I can get that from the talk shows on other stations. Several times I've had to check to see if I'm actully listening to AM 820 or to the Z Morning Zoo.
Alison Bond
Teaneck, NJ
Posted by Alison Bond, 9:10 a.m. Thursday, May 1 2008 Permalink
Also, I'm surprised to see that my comment will appear on the website "momentarily". Do you actually mean "momentarily" or do you mean "in a moment"? They are not the same, though I realise that the error is in keeping with the low aspirations of "The Takeaway".
Posted by Alison Bond, 9:13 a.m. Thursday, May 1 2008 Permalink
I'm a pretty with-it guy, but I have never -ever - noticed that the meaning of the word "gay" has been gradually morphing to mean "hopeless". Or, perhaps, I'm just not hanging out in the right homophobic crowd where the word "gay" is regularly used as a pejorative.
In any case, I think "The Take-away" should be a little more careful about legitimizing this kind of bigotry. It just makes your new radio show seem SNARKY and MISINFORMED.
Posted by RicHinkle, 9:19 a.m. Thursday, May 1 2008 Permalink
I'm a pretty withit guy, but I have never ever noticed that the meaning of the word "gay" has been gradually morphing to mean "hopeless". Or, perhaps, I'm just not hanging out in the right homophobic crowd where the word "gay" is regularly used as a pejorative.
In any case, I think "The Takeaway" should be a little more careful about legitimizing this kind of bigotry. It just makes your new radio show seem SNARKY and MISINFORMED.
Posted by RicHinkle, 9:19 a.m. Thursday, May 1 2008 Permalink
"That being said..." After giving an opinion or supplying "expertise" about a particular issue a pundit will play it safe and say: "that being said" and go on to give reasons why the commentary previously given may not be the case. We are back to the beginning with no answer to the original question of why something happened, the second half canceling out the first.
Another phrase that has to go: "Ya think?"
Posted by Margery, 10:27 a.m. Thursday, May 1 2008 Permalink
"The phrase that would love to have retired is: "No problem," when I say thank you to someone. If I thought it was going to be a problem, I never would have asked them in the first place. So please -- let's retire it. Thank you."
Posted by Nancy from New Jersey, via SpinVox, 11:38 a.m. Thursday, May 1 2008 Permalink
I wouldn't merely retire, I would BAN the use of sweeping generalities by the media. I submit two out of current discourse.
"Every little girl looks up to Miley." Not if parents have given their daughters a strong sense of self and the wisdom not to mindlessly follow the masses.
From the political arena, the #1 phrase I would currently like to ban: "Hillary has captured the older women's vote". Not this one, she hasn't.
Posted by Eveyln C, via email, 11:48 a.m. Thursday, May 1 2008 Permalink
How silly of me to let it go (this is my second post on this topic). "Make over" - a phrase no doubt invented and used by vapid media types, as in "Mornings need a make over. What would you change?" - well, as you mentioned it, I'd get rid of all those vapid media types who use phrases such as "make over", and return to Morning Edition.
"The Takeaway—WNYC's answer to daytime TV".
Posted by Joe Huybens, 12:20 p.m. Thursday, May 1 2008 Permalink
Let's not forget the classic "smoking gun will be a mushroom cloud" line that helped the administration sell the war. Let's strike "smoking gun" from the political lexicon; maybe this will encourage honest discussion of the real dangers facing our world.
Posted by Adam G, 12:52 p.m. Thursday, May 1 2008 Permalink
I would like to put to rest the phrase "has issues with."
I once heard a woman say, "I have issues with full-time employment."
I said, "You mean, you have trouble looking for a job?"
Also: monetize, tasked with, stakeholders, anything 360 (sorry, Kurt A.), Web 2.0, and most especially, millenial. Me, I love the young folks. But that term makes them sound like a bacterial infection.
Posted by Martha Garvey, 6:01 p.m. Thursday, May 1 2008 Permalink
My least favorite phrase of the moment is "You know," especially as enunciated (all too often) by Senator Clinton. A useless, mind-numbing filler, it manages to make even intelligent people sound incredibly brainless and it waters down the message to the level of banality. I realize that even gifted orators should be given a break now and then as they formulate complicated thoughts, but "You know" is ubiquitous in Clintonese. "You know" has become, for me at least, synonymous with the poverty of ideas and the baseless rote accusations at the heart of the Clinton campaign. But beyond that, it is symptomatic of the meaninglessness that characterizes much of contemporary American-speak: "Like," "Um," "Kind of," "It's kind of, like..,"
Posted by Peter Miller, 7:40 a.m. Wednesday, May 7 2008 Permalink
Audio For April 30, 2008
-
Listen to all segments
-
Listen |
Download Entire Show In One File
- Mumbai: sifting facts from rumors (11/28/2008)
- What if economists ran the White House? (12/02/2008)
- Finding opportunity out of underemployment (12/03/2008)
- Language abuse: "Damp Squid" and your most irritating words and phrases (11/25/2008)
- Why low sales numbers on Black Friday might actually be a good thing (11/28/2008)
- Lethal autonomous systems: The ethics of programming robots for war (11/25/2008)
- Travel woes continue in Bangkok as protesters declare victory (12/02/2008)
- Reaping the health benefits of gratitude with the science of thankfulness (11/27/2008)
- Pardon the turkey... and Scooter Libby, too? (11/27/2008)
- Mornings need a make over. What would you change? (04/26/2008)
More from The Takeaway Monthly Archive
Takeaway Blogs
The show is a co-production of WNYC Radio and Public Radio International,
in collaboration with The BBC World Service, New York Times Radio and WGBH Boston.
Posted by jamiegp, 6:38 a.m. Thursday, May 1 2008 Permalink