Outdated or overused jargon words and phrases

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At CNBC make it on December 26, 2021 there is an article by Kathy and Ross Petras titled Want to sound more intelligent? Avoid these 15 words and phrases that are ‘embarrassingly outdated,’ say grammar experts. Those 15 are:

 

Bandwith

End-user

Granular

Hack

‘I did a thing’

‘It is what it is’

Influencer

Jab

The new normal

Pivot

‘Take it offline’

Thought leader

‘We remain cautious’

WFH (work from home)

Zooming

 

Lucy Kellaway also discussed granular and said it should be replaced by detailed. Back on December 16, 2015 I blogged about her Guffipedia in a post titled Jargon and guff. On January 4, 2017 I blogged about Tired sports jargon – please don’t say pivot when another word would be better.

 

Another article at Acrolinx on May 8, 2021 by Cynthia Spiers is titled 16 Overused words and phrases and what to say instead. They are:

 

At the end of the day

Bandwidth

Bang for your buck

Content is king

Get granular

Get the ball rolling

Get your ducks in a row

Giving 110%

Hit the ground running

Keep your eye on the ball

Leverage

A no-brainer

On the same page

Out of left field

Synergize

Think outside the box

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cynthia’s list has two ancient baseball phrases, ‘Keep your eye on the ball’ and ‘Out of left field.’ (Bandwidth and granular are on both lists). There also is a useful article at the Buckley School on September 9, 2021 titled How to rescue presentations drowning in jargon.

 

The 1895 baseball poster came from the Library of Congress.

 

The Idaho Dispatch isn’t a non-partisan platform

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Idaho Dispatch is edited by Greg Pruett. It’s About web page says that:

 

“Idaho Dispatch is a non-partisan platform designed to be your local media ally in Idaho.”

 

On December 25, 2021 it published an article by Doug Nickle titled Op-Ed: It’s time for Idaho Conservative Republicans to have a serious conversation about Idaho’s Constitution Party.

 

But there was no mention that Mr. Pruett is Vice Chair for that political party, and thus definitely has an axe to grind. You have to look at his personal web site to find an article on July 25, 2021 titled Why I joined the Constitution Party of Idaho. He needs to update the Dispatch’s About page to reflect current reality.

 

A 1919 image of an axe sharpener came from the Library of Congress.

 

Spotting nonsense by drawing diagrams

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the Idaho Freedom Foundation on December 17, 2021 there is another rant about education by Wayne Hoffman titled Let’s lift up Idahoans by getting government out of the way. The second sentence in his sixth paragraph caught my attention:

 

“…. All students deserve more than mediocrity.”

 

But that’s just part of the Lake Wobegon Effect, the closing sentence in a Garrison Keillor monologue:

 

"That's the news from Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As shown above, only half of them can really be more than mediocre. An article by Kevin Richert in IdahoEdNews on February 18, 2019 titled Wayne Hoffman’s big disclaimer on public schools pointed out how Hoffman had notoriously claimed:

 

“I don’t think the government should be in the education business.”

 

She gave him her kidney, and together they wrote an album of songs about it

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heather Platts and Bruce Michael Miller live in Twin Falls, Idaho. They are partners and also a singing duo called Crazy Love. Michael had kidney disease. Heather was a transplant match, so in August 2019 Heather donated one of her kidneys to him. There is an article by Rachel Cohen at Boise State Public Radio on November 19, 2021 titled She gave him her kidney. Together, they wrote an album about it (The Big Give). The article mentions three songs: The Big Give, Angels in Scrubs, and Boomerang but doesn’t give links.

 

There is a lovely video you can watch for Angels in Scrubs. You also can listen to another five songs from the album at YouTube: The Big Give, Boomerang, Borrowed Time, I Will, Ray of Hope, and Angels in Scrubs.

 

The gift box image came from Openclipart.

A Sunday Dilbert cartoon about having a resting bored face (RBF)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lack of nonverbal feedback, like a poker face (defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “an inscrutable face that reveals no hint of a person’s thoughts or feelings”) can confuse others. At ZOOM meetings you may have seen some like the four shown above. Yesterday’s Dilbert cartoon mentioned a specific subtype – the resting bored face (RBF):

 

Tina (the technical writer): I’m sorry. Is my description of the problem boring you?

Dilbert: What? No I’m totally engaged.

Dilbert: I just have a bad case of ‘Resting Bored Face’ or RBF for short.

Tina: So…no matter what I say you always look like that?

Dilbert: You make it sound like a bad thing.

Tina: You’re sucking the life force right out of my body!

Tina: I’d rather be dead than spend another second with you.

Wally: Can you teach me the RBF?

Dilbert: I’d love to. But I probably look like I wouldn’t.

 

On the other hand, overly expressive faces also can be confusing. Back on June 16, 2011I blogged about why you should Learn to ignore these audience behaviors.

 

The four faces were adapted from page 9 of Charles Lederer’s 1923 book, Cartooning Made Easy, at the Internet Archive.

 

The three pees of public speaking

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have repeatedly seen reference to there being 3 P’s of public speaking. One article by Anne L. Anastasi at the Philadelphia Business Journal on July 3, 2006 is titled Fearless public speaking is a simple as learning the 3 P’s. A second article by Nancy Daniels at Ezine articles on August 14, 2009 is more explicitly titled: The 3 P’s of public speaking – prepare, practice and present. A third article by Veronica Harth at LinkedIn Pulse on July 4, 2017 also is titled 3 Ps of public speaking.

 

But there is a more explicit and important meaning about preparation, the Three Pees. You should plan to urinate thrice that day, lest you wind up trying to speak with an overflowing bladder. A fourth article by Kevin Lerner at PresentationTeam on May 27, 2019 titled Dealing with distractions – public speaking tips when the unexpected strikes warned:

 

“One of the last things I do before taking the stage is to take a quick trip to the restroom to empty my bladder. It’s a habit learned from having to do the pee-pee dance on stage once following a hearty breakfast rich with water and orange juice. I raced through my presentation and ended five minutes early, clearly in a state of discomfort.”

 

The first time should be very early in the day, before you head to the venue. This is in case you have a shy bladder, as discussed in a fifth article by Dario Sabaghi at Discover on December 18, 2020 titled Shy bladder syndrome is a social phobia that’s more common and treatable than people realize.

 

But some have argued instead that a full bladder can be beneficial. A sixth article by Brad Phillips at The Throughline Blog on August 24, 2014 is titled Should you really use a restroom before a speech? He told how British Prime Minister David Cameron claimed that condition helped him focus. A seventh article by Brandon Specktor at the Reader’s Digest on December 23, 2018 is titled The convincing reason you should hold your pee – sometimes. The transcript to a TED-Ed talk by Heba Shaheed titled Is it bad to hold your pee? discusses the anatomy and physiology. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I agree with the quotation shown above (attributed to Ulysses S. Grant as related by Lew Bryson in the 2009 book, Pennsylvania Breweries). Similar sentiments by others are described on page 185 of The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs.

 

Images of three urinals and a photo of Grant came from Wikimedia Commons.

 

A song about avoiding heartbreak - by getting an artificial heart

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second song on Jackson Browne’s 2021 album, Downhill From Everywhere, is titled My Cleveland Heart. The hilarious YouTube video shows him having his heart replaced by an improbably large mechanical one. I recently saw him perform it on the PBS TV program Austin City Limits. That song’s humorous lyrics begin as follows:

 

“I’m going to make a few changes right away

The way I leap and the way I fall

The way I need somebody else’s eyes to see me

The way I need anyone at all

 

But I expect the real changes to start

When I finally get my Cleveland Heart

They’re made to take a bashin’

And never lose their passion

 

They never break, they don’t even beat

And they don’t ache, they just plug in and shine

Don’t make mistakes, and they don’t know defeat

Like my heart makes, like this broken heart of mine”

 

An image of a broken heart was adapted from a poster for Why Men Leave Home at the Library of Congress.

 

Falling down at the start of an article by quoting a bogus statistic based on superficial research

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At GCU Today (from Grand Canyon University) there is a decent article by Mike Killen on December 15, 2021 titled Fear not, Public Speaking Lab will … um … help. But it starts by showing an image captioned with a claim that:

 

“The fear of public speaking, or glossophobia, affects 73% of the population.”

 

and that statistic is discussed more in the ninth paragraph:

 

“The fear of public speaking is the most common phobia, and the National Institute of Mental Health reports that public speaking anxiety, or glossophobia, affects about 73% of the population.”

 

Unfortunately that is a bogus statistic (really from Statistic Brain), which I blogged about back on March 22, 2019 in a post titled An apparently authoritative statistic about fear of public speaking that really lacks any support. What does real research sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health say? In an earlier post on August 12, 2015 titled There’s really no mystery about how common stage fright is I mentioned that public speaking/performance was feared by just 21.2% of U. S. adults (roughly a third of the bogus percentage). Also, speaking up in a meeting/class was feared by 19.5% of them.

 

The image of a man falling over was adapted from this one at Wikimedia Commons.

 

You cannot buy prime rib in the self-serve checkout at the WinCo supermarket where I shop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recently at the Fairview Avenue WinCo supermarket there was a sign telling customers they could not buy prime rib in the self-serve checkout. That store has about the same number of self-serve checkouts and conventional ones. I find that their eight debit-card-only self-serve checkouts often are quicker.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But shoplifters can abuse them, commonly by a method known as The Banana Trick. An article by Pedro Ramos at Agilence on October 29, 2020 is titled How to identify and reduce self-checkout theft and fraud. He discusses three common methods:

 

The banana trick (substituting an inexpensive bulk food)

The pass-around (skip scanning)

The switcheroo (barcode switching)

 

A more recent article by Kate Fowler at Newsweek on August 17, 2021 is titled Walmart worker shows how they know when customers steal from self-checkouts. And an article by Alina Dizik at Money on October 9, 2019 is titled Yes, self-checkout machines encourage shoplifting. Here’s why stores love them anyway.

 

An image of two self-serve checkouts is from Wikimedia Commons. The image of a banana by Renee Comet came from the National Cancer Institute.

 

BSU Professor Scott Yenor and his Blue Turd thinking

 

Boise State University (BSU) political science professor Scott Yenor got a lot of negative publicity for a reactionary speech at a conservative meeting. At The Arbiter on November 29, 2021 there was an article titled Boise State political science professor Scott Yenor grabs headlines with speech on “evils that flow from feminism.” At the Idaho Capital Sun there was another article by Melissa Wintrow on December 3, 2021 titled An open letter to Boise State professor Scott Yenor: We aren’t going anywhere.

 

Then on December 8, 2021 there were two articles at IdahoEdNews – one by Kevin Richert titled Analysis: Boise State has a Scott Yenor problem, and it could prove costly and another by Rod Gramer titled Scott Yenor will lose his war on women because our nation needs their talent. Of course, over at the Idaho Freedom Foundation there was an article defending Yenor by Wayne Hoffman on December 13, 2021 titled Women and men could use a break from government college peddlers and careerism.

 

On August 19, 2021 BSU had an article titled Blue Turf Thinking at Boise State introducing their new brand:

 

The brand platform will draw attention to Boise State’s innovation, research strengths, academics and creativity by leveraging the national brand recognition of the Blue Turf.

As with all of our branding at Boise State, the narrative, graphics and visuals will align with a consistent style. The platform will be anchored by the graphics Boldly Blue. Proundly Innovating. The wordmark or tagline This is Blue Turf Thinking will be reserved for specific experiences, academics and programming that meet the criteria for innovation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yenor’s brand of crap can be described (as shown above) by a parody of that brand - Blue Turd Thinking.

 

Quotations about fear from Ralph Waldo Emerson, Herman Melville, and Dan North

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a quotation attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson, that:

 

“Fear always springs from ignorance.”

 

I ran across it in an article by Victor M. Parachin titled Taking the fear out of failure which appeared in the August 2000 issue of Toastmaster magazine. It came from an oration delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Cambridge, August 31, 1837. The whole paragraph containing it says:

 

“In self-trust, all the virtues are comprehended. Free should the scholar be, — free and brave. Free even to the definition of freedom, ‘without any hindrance that does not arise out of his own constitution.’ Brave; for fear is a thing, which a scholar by his very function puts behind him. Fear always springs from ignorance. It is a shame to him if his tranquillity, amid dangerous times, arise from the presumption, that, like children and women, his is a protected class; or if he seek a temporary peace by the diversion of his thoughts from politics or vexed questions, hiding his head like an ostrich in the flowering bushes, peeping into microscopes, and turning rhymes, as a boy whistles to keep his courage up. So is the danger a danger still; so is the fear worse.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a similar quotation from Herman Melville that:

 

“Ignorance is the parent of fear.”

 

As you might suspect, it came from his 1851 novel, Moby Dick (in Chapter 3).

 

But both of these quotations only apply to our irrational fears, and there also are rational ones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As shown above, there is a better quote from consultant Dan North regarding both types. He has discussed them in an article titled Better Best Practices that first appeared at InfoQ in March 2008. He explained:

 

“Now fear comes in two flavours, namely rational and irrational. Rational fear is healthy and useful. Lions are bad. Fire is hot. Trucks hurt. This is fear based on good information, either wired in via evolution or learned through cultural or individual development. Irrational fear is the source of prejudices, phobias and knee-jerk reactions. The earth is flat and you’ll die if you go over the edge. Hanging up dead rats by their tails wards off the plague. Putting coconut shells on your ears makes the freight aeroplane appear [cargo cult].

…. Rational fear is good: it stops us getting killed. We should embrace it and cherish it as a guardian of our well-being. Irrational fear is just a drag, but fortunately we have a strategy for dealing with it:

Because irrational fear comes from ignorance, we can learn our way out of it!”

The 1871 engraving of Emerson came from the Library of Congress, and an 1870 portrait of Melville came from Wikimedia Commons.  

 

Not starting at the bottom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an article by Dr. John Livingston at the Gem State Patriot News on December 4, 2021 titled WINNING “Divided WE Fall (Fail) – United We STAND” that, among other things, criticizes Governor Brad Little for his background. (His grandfather was known as the Idaho Sheep King).   

 

In seventh sentence of his second paragraph he claims that:

 

“….In any field of endeavor those who rise without starting at the bottom invariably have a sense of entitlement regarding their position, and the relationships that are so critical to developing leadership skills and savvy are never learned.”

 

But Livingston idolizes Donald J. Trump, who came from a wealthly family. An article by Kevin Breuninger at CNBC on October 2, 2018 is titled Trump claimed he turned a ‘small’ $1 million loan from his father into an empire. The New York Times say it was more like $60.7 million in loans.

 

The article ends with:

 

“What about You? MIG ‘Fight Like Hell’ ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ ”

 

MIG is a hilarious typo. He meant to say MIGA, an acronym for Make Idaho Great Again, which was most of the title of an earlier article on November 20, 2019 - Let’s Make Idaho Great Again.

Instead MIG is the acronym for the Russian Mikoyan and Gurevich Design Bureau, best known for their Korean War jet fighter – the MIG-15.  

 

And “Let’s Go Brandon” just is a proxy slogan for the obscene “F#ck Joe Biden.”

 

Perhaps Dr. Livingston also should look in the mirror and reflect about his own background. An earlier article of his in the Gem State Patriot News on October 19, 2019 titled Diversity, Discrimination, and Discernment says he played high school football at Upper Arlington, which is a wealthy suburb of Columbus, Ohio.   

 

The image was adapted from this one at Wikimedia Commons.

 

There is more than one answer to a question like when a season starts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recently my wife showed me that there is a Reddit community (subreddit) called Data Is Beautiful. Over there I found a reference to an article by Jasmine Mithani and Kaleigh Rogers at FiveThirtyEight on November 24, 2021 titled Our very unscientific poll on when each season starts. I would use the astronomical definitions with equinox or solstice, but, as shown above for winter via a PowerPoint donut chart, there are other possibilities like holidays.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I dislike donut charts (because it’s hard to discern small differences), so I have shown results for all seasons above via a single bar chart. For fall, the autumnal equinox is the most common answer, but for the other three seasons the astronomical definition comes in second or third. Also 1% even say fall starts when pumpkin spice lattes are available again.  

 

Did Ralph Waldo Emerson really say that all the great speakers were bad speakers at first?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an often-used quotation, attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson, that:

 

“All the great speakers were bad speakers at first.”

 

For example, John Zimmer used it on the home page of his Manner of Speaking web site. (John has written about over 340 quotes there). But, did Emerson really say that?

 

I looked at Google Books (and also EbscoHost), and quickly found that quote is real. It appears in his 1860 book of essays titled The Conduct of  Life in an essay on Power. A longer version is:

 

“….Practice is nine-tenths. A course of mobs is good practice for orators. All the great speakers were bad speakers at first. Stumping through England for seven years made Cobden a consummate debater. Stumping it through New England for twice seven trained Wendell Phillips….”

 

The 1871 engraving of Emerson came from the Library of Congress.

 

Most Americans are not terrified of public speaking

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An article by Elizabeth Roper Marcus at Psychology Today on December 2, 2021 titled Getting past the terror of public speaking opens by claiming that:

 

“Like most people, I was terrified of public speaking.”

 

Above the text, the first item on her list of three key points is:

 

“Most people are terrified of public speaking, so they avoid it.”

 

Assuming most people think the same way as you do is a dangerous generalization. As shown above via a Venn diagram, going up from what you think to what Americans think, and then even to what people in general think is quite a leap. The Merriam Webster dictionary definition for most is:

 

“greatest in quantity, extent or degree - or the majority of.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Americans there is survey data from seven editions of the Chapman Survey of American Fears we can use to assess that claim, as shown above in a bar chart. They reported percentages for four different levels of fear: Very Afraid, Afraid, Slightly Afraid, and Not Afraid. For Very Afraid (which roughly describes the terrified) the range is only from 8.8% to 12.8% (average 10.6%). That’s a long way below 50%. Even the sum for Very Afraid plus Afraid falls far below 50%; we have to add in Slightly Afraid to get a majority.     

 

How afraid are Americans of public speaking? Not very! We can calculate a Fear Score statistic (on a scale from 1=Not Afraid, 2=Slightly Afraid, 3=Afraid, 4=Very Afraid) based on those percentages. In a blog post on October 30, 2015 titled According to the 2015 Chapman Survey of American Fears, adults are less than Afraid of federal government Corruption and only Slightly Afraid of Public Speaking, I discussed the calculation which is simply as follows:

 

Fear Score = [ 1x(% for Not Afraid) +  2x(% for Slightly Afraid) 
+ 3x(% for Afraid) + 4x(% for Very Afraid)]/100  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As shown above in a second bar chart, the average fear score is 1.967, which is almost exactly the 2.0 for just Slightly Afraid.  

 

Otherwise Elizabeth’s article is very useful. She talks about eroding the fear by starting small, keeping it simple, and repeating (while slowly upping the challenge). One way to do that is to join a local Toastmasters club.   

 

That article also is a post at her ELizWrites blog on December 7, 2021 titled Worth the terror.

 

Jólabókaflóðið: a Christmas Flood of Books in Iceland

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Wikipedia page describes one wonderful custom - the Icelandic Christmas book flood (Jólabókaflóðið). An article by Ashley Leath at Country Living on November 30, 2021 is titled Why Icelanders spend every Christmas reading books and drinking cocoa. A blog post at Icelandic Air on December 2, 2020 is titled Jólabókaflóðið: the Christmas flood of books. Another article by Shaunacy Ferro at Mental Floss on December 8, 2018 is titled The Christmas Book Flood: Iceland’s literature-loving holiday tradition.

 

Back during World War II paper was one of the few items not being rationed, so books became popular gifts for Christmas. In fall the Iceland Publishers Association sends a catalog of new publications to every home in the country. Then residents buy books and give them as gifts on Christmas Eve.

 

The 1927 poster of Books for the holiday by Edward Arthur Wilson came from the Library of Congress.

 

A cartoon with a very dark speech topic - What your last day on earth feels like

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The December 1, 2021 Pearls Before Swine comic strip had Zebra visited by a neighbor from the Fraternity of Crocodiles, with the following dialogue:

 

Larry: Hullo zeeba neighba. Leesten. Crocs want offer you honor of give speech at ‘Association of Predators’ annual meeting.

Zebra: What would you want me to talk about?

Larry: What you last day on earth feel like.

Fred: We need better sales pitch.

 

Pearls Before Swine began back on January 7, 2002. A month later parodies of TV nature shows (like Wild Kingdom) began with lions attacking zebras. One had Lions, Hyenas, and Vultures, others had Cheetahs, Butter, a Going-Away Party and even a Zebra with a Walkman.

 

On April 8, 2007 the Crocs cheered while Zebra was watching a nature documentary. On September 15, 2021 the crocs had a ‘good book’ titled Die Zeeba Die.

 

My cartoon of a crocodile was adapted from a Pearson Scott Foresman image at Wikimedia Commons.