LSSU Word Banishment

[Beverly Flanigan]

Can't somebody please ask Mr. Shibley and his colleagues to drop "the
Queen's English" from the list title?  It's our English too!  And it's too
bad they wanted to banish "my bad"; it's one of my favorite apologies.

Come to think of it, I'll copy this note to Mr. Shibley myself.


At 11:39 AM 12/11/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>Forwarded from John Shibley of LSSU.
>
>----- Forwarded message from John Shibley <jshibley at lssu.edu> -----
>
>WORD BANISHMENT SEASON FOR 2004 OPENS
>
>SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. - It's time to get rid of this past year's abused
>and mis-used words and phrases.
>         For every New Year's Day since 1976, Lake Superior State
>University has issued an annual "List of Words Banished from the Queen's
>English for Mis-Use, Over-Use or General Uselessness." Between now and
>December 15, LSSU will be accepting nominations for banishment from all
>over the world, covering all manner of word or phrase worthy of exile.
>         University officials note that this year's efforts have received a
>pre-election year lift, but not necessarily from the world of politics.
>Nominations for 2004's list have been rolling in via e-mail at an average
>of 100 a week.
>         "The selection committee anticipates . . . a surplus of
>election-year nominees," says a spokesman for the word-sifters. "But thanks
>to the Internet, we are already inundated with more than 5,000 declared
>candidates."
>Hundreds of words from the fields of academia, advertising, business, the
>military, sports, and politics have found their way onto the banishment list.
>         Words and phrases outlawed in previous years include: My
>Bad  (`98), Forced Relaxation  (`89), Free Gift  (`88), Live
>Audience  (`83, `87, `90), and Minor Emergency Clinic  (86 and 90). Last
>year's list featured "peel-and-eat shrimp," the noun-modifier "extreme,"
>and the elusive redundancy "undisclosed, secret location."
>         Nominations for 2004's list, along with compelling reasons for
>banishment, should be submitted early, and often, through the Internet at
>http://www.lssu.edu/banished.
>         The 2004 list will be released on January 1, in time to welcome
>the new year.
>
>  LSSU
>
>
>
>
>
>John Shibley
>Photographer/Writer
>Public Relations Office
>Lake Superior State University
>Sault Ste. Marie, MI 49783
>
>906/635-2314 (voice)
>906/635-2623 (fax)
>
>
>"There are known knowns; there are things we know we know.
>We also know there are known unknowns;
>that is to say we know there are some things we do not know.
>But there are also unknown unknowns -
>  the ones we don't know we don't know."
>
>- US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
>
>----- End forwarded message -----