From jmpfund@bgnet.bgsu.edu Wed Jan 1 12:31:39 2003 Received: from mxu1.u.washington.edu (mxu1.u.washington.edu [140.142.32.132]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.12.1+UW01.12/8.12.1+UW02.12) with ESMTP id h01KVdCK041718 for ; Wed, 1 Jan 2003 12:31:39 -0800 Received: from gemini.dacor.net (gemini.dacor.net [63.174.195.21]) by mxu1.u.washington.edu (8.12.1+UW01.12/8.12.1+UW02.12) with ESMTP id h01KVawR011192 for ; Wed, 1 Jan 2003 12:31:37 -0800 Received: from [63.171.164.37] (max1-37.dacor.net [63.171.164.37]) by dacor.net (Rockliffe SMTPRA 5.2.5) with ESMTP id for ; Wed, 1 Jan 2003 15:31:36 -0500 Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Sender: jmpfund@mailstore.bgsu.edu Message-Id: In-Reply-To: References: Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 15:30:50 -0500 To: classics@u.washington.edu From: "James M. Pfundstein" Subject: Re: Overused words 2002 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" At 9:06 AM -0500 1/1/03, Dan Tompkins wrote: >Here is the URL for the annual list of overused words. It includes at least >one phrase ('that said' -- a genitive absolute? -- that I'm partial to, but >such is life). All in all, a useful piece: > >http://www.lssu.edu/banished/current/default.html I enjoyed it, but I have to say I think they're wrong about "that said"/"that having been said". I'm not saying it's not overused, but I think it has a legitimate use: to signal to the listener that a change in direction is coming, that another side of the question is about to be discussed. But maybe, now more than ever, we need to consider only one side of any question... I'm also surprised that in Sault St. Marie they're not hip to the utility of the term "black ice." Some ice is opaque, and therefore more readily visible; further, "black ice" is usually used to describe ice accumulations from car exhaust on heavily used roads. It's relatively difficult to "watch one's step" at forty miles an hour when what you're watching for is invisible; some warning is helpful in these cases. Since I'm abusing the list's patience so heavily, I might as well point out that the objection to "there is no score" comes from uncooperative listening. "Score" means, quite legitimately "a point earned in a game" so that "there is no score" is equivalent to saying "no one has scored." The listener isn't playing fair if he selects an inappropriate definition of a word from the lexicon and then blames the error on the speaker. Furthermore, "on a recent _High Chaparral_ Kathy Kirby was singing glibly about 'Fly Me to the Stars' when of course there are no scheduled flights of this kind, or even chartered, available to the general public at the present moment-- although of course, when they are, BALPA will be in the vanguard!" JM("Multa laetitia fruamini anno novo")P .