Wednesday, November 5, 2008

One Irritating Phrase.

Have you ever heard a teenager use the phrase, "Back in the olden days"?

First of all, I'd like to point out, "olden" is not a word typically used in conversation.
Second, truly grating is when they are referring to the 70's, and not the 1870's, either.
Third, why not just say "old"? Actually, they both grate on my nerves.

I am beginning to feel the same irritation when talking heads on TV say, "People are watching their money these days," because it kind of seems like the "these days" they are referring to means the last couple of months when all this mortgage/loan stuff hit the fan. Maybe not in real life, to real people (who have probably been watching their money for a long time), but to the media? It seems like they just discovered that folks are concerned about their finances.

This is the closest I've gotten to political on this blog, and understanding numbers isn't my strength, so I'm probably missing a lot of the facts on the financial crisis. But I do know my language, and there are more phrases to follow.

Wouldn't it have been great if I'd had the World Wide Web on which to spread my opinion back in the olden days? You know, the early 1990's. Ancient times.

3 comments:

Aaron said...

If you think about it, newspeople should never use the phrases "these days", "lately", or "recently". They are reporting on the NEWS, now what happened last month.

Noel said...

I regularly use the phrase "in the olden days" when telling my daughters of life without personal computers, air conditioning, microwave ovens, cell phones, CDs and mp3s, etc.

In fact, in the olden days before blogs (which for me goes back to the early '80s when what I did was called BBS-ing using FIDO), we actually had to talk to people in person or using THE phone. We also had to cook food over an open flame...

Gotta run to my Lunar Society of Silvis meeting...my social life is so rich in Illinois.

Crystal said...

ha ha. You used the phrase World Wide Web. Now THAT is from the old days.