Reporters should not try to be cute and invent words. NPR today has Susan Page (whom I usually like) talking about "Stagflation." Isn't that cute? Last week it was "green collar jobs" (not on Diane Rehm) . Doesn't that just make sense. It's bad enough most people can't use the English they have already, but do we need to go making up new parts of it too? In the past we had White Water gate and Iran-Contragate. Hell, we had everything-gate because if you wanted it to sound scandalous, you'd call it something gate.
I ask you what the hell is a green collar job? A white collar job is management where they wore white shirts, tie, etc. Hence "white collar." A blue collar job is more of an assembly line job where they often wore blue coveralls (picture the Maytag repair man icon). Hence, "blue collar." But if you want to talk about jobs in renewable/environmental energy business, why look we have a color (green) so we call them green color jobs. Aren't we just so clever? We'll ignore the fact that one relates to the type of work while the other relates to the sector of work, because if you don't understand a metaphor (I know this isn't really a metaphor.), we can mix away until we look absurd. Consider that we will now have blue collar green collar jobs and white collar green collar jobs (mint green collar?). Won't that make a lot of sense?
You should have to be licensed to use the English language.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Hey, just for the record, I didn't invent "stagflation" as a word. It was coined during the 1970s, when after the oil price shocks we had stagnated growth and inflation -- where we might be headed again. "Stagflation" is a first cousin of "the misery index." Maybe that's a phrase about to make a comeback, too.
Thanks.
Susan Page
I have to say that I never expected to have anyone with celebrity about whom I write respond to one of my rants. I find it a vaguely humbling experience though I’m not entirely sure why; I think there is just a degree of affirmation in knowing that someone unrelated to me reads this thing where I vent from time to time. I also grant you that I just dashed back there and re-read what I wrote about Susan Page.
So, to Susan Page, of USA Today: If it really was you (one always must doubt a bit on the Internet unfortunately), thank you for reading and thank you for commenting. I still think that Stagflation is a silly, overly-cute word as are green collar, whatever-gate, and a whole host of other words people invent all the time. However, none of that lessens, in any way, my appreciation that you took the time to read and comment. I listen to snippets of the Diane Rehm show a lot and I know you are a frequent guest and hostess on the show, so this may not be the last time I take your name in vain. Regardless of what I may say from time to time in the heat of a rant, you should know how much I usually appreciate your rather more neutral view of things during the Friday News Round-up (or on other topics) than the views provided by some of the other guests. I am also quite aware of how much easier it is for me, sitting in my quiet chair here in Illinois, to take cheap, off-the-cuff, shots at those like you who are a bit more in the spotlight and don’t have the luxury of being able to take equally cheap shots back. I don’t believe I could restrain myself half so well.
Now Congress is using the word stagflation. *sigh* Does common usage trump cutesy?
Post a Comment