If there's an original thought out there, I could use it right now!

As Christie will tell you, I get annoyed by certain words. It could be the sound of them, but I think it has more to do with the misuse or overuse of them. Today, on my ride home I was annoyed, & not by the white out blizzard conditions I was driving in, the ridiculously large SUV's swerving past me at 90 miles an hour or the morons who put on their hazard lights. No, I was annoyed by the fact that I couldn't listen to one of my favorite radio programs "Marketplace" without thinking about the 7,896 times the word marketplace was used during my meetings last week. You can't go through one of these business meetings without hearing "talking points" or "spin" as the news channels like to say. During one meeting, I was rather bored so I decided to start writing down unique words that the speakers would say that were not repeated more than a few times. I couldn't fill a page. Here are some of the biggest offenders:

Marketplace
Marketshare
an excellent product to take to your customers
excellent color & gloss retention
burnish resistant (here's a hint: any time a label uses the word resists or resistant, that means it is awful at that which it is supposed to resist)
perception is reality
disrupt the apple cart
lead generation
grow sales
price points
new product to position against your competition

I could go on forever. Sure, every profession has it's own jargon, but that doesn't mean we have to lose all handle on language & originality. Once in a while, I hear an employee of our fine company using these phrases or jargon in front of customers & it makes me cringe.

Five Favorite Songs of the Day

Dignity-Bob Dylan, Rochester 2004

I've Got a Feeling-The Beatles, Anthology Volume 3

You Are a Runner & I Am My Father's Son-Wolf Parade, Apologies to the Queen Mary



Flamenco Sketches-Miles Davis, Kind of Blue

So Long, It's Been Good to Know You-Woody Guthrie

Choose your words, wisely, friends...

andrew