Monday Blues: Strange Words

People often stop me in the middle of a ride to ask why I, sometimes, use such strange words in my attempts at writing. Words like donnybrook, or gals, or when I recently used the word hubbub to describe a great disturbance in the Force, err, no, a great disturbance at the Colleges. While I don't think those words are especially strange, I am also not sure just what words these people were referring to, and those are the best examples I could think of in a jiffy. Jiffy. I usually just reply, "its the way I talk (when I talk), and I write like I talk."

True as that may be, there is a deeper, more substantive reason as well. See, language, like science, is kind of under attack these days - not an obvious attack, perhaps, more like an insidious siege. Abbreviations turn short tweets into little more than a series of grunts disguised as conversation, while emojis, and now those Apple stickers, are doing their best to send words to an early grave. Careful, or you might end up with more people like #45, who can manage a limited list of tired, and overused superlatives - great, sad, so good, wonderful, but little else worth emulating, or even listening to. Next time you are set to click one of those little yellow faces, consider a word or two instead.