F ³: All the Fashion

Have you noticed how food trends come in waves? When I was in college a menu item called “Lyonnaise Potatoes” was all the rage. It was everywhere. Surely you remember when arugula burst onto the culinary scene, or mesclun/spring mix. Then came sous vide, followed by Wagyu steak…

What about in home decorating? How many homes have been forever changed because of those two little words: open concept? Recently the words on home shows that make me tilt my head like a dog hearing an unfamiliar sound are “elevated” and “moment”. You can even put them together for greater effect:

We’re creating an elevated moment by choosing mermaid tile for the shower.

I admit that my concept of the word elevate prompts me to imagine a whole lot of levitation going on. It strikes me that this might be dangerous in the shower.

As to “moment”…if you let the fireplace have a moment won’t the other parts of the house be jealous? What will you say to the foyer? The powder room? Who gets the “moment” experience and who gets overlooked?

Yes, I think too much. But you knew that.

Lastly, a word I’ve been seeing a lot on social media over the last several years is “impactful.” My brain tells me that this is not a real word. And yet people keep using it. So, I looked it up. This is what I learned.

Is “Impactful” a Word?, Shundalyn Allen, Grammarly

Impactful emerged in the 1960s as an adjective meaning “manifesting a great effect or impact.”

Some critics reject impactful as an illogical, unnecessary, and clumsy piece of jargon.

Yes, impactful is a word, but it’s likely to annoy at least some of your readers. If you want to substitute another word for impactful, use a synonym such as influential, powerful, or effective.

Here I thought this word sprang into existence no more that four or five years ago and it has been floating around since the 1960’s. Oof.

I don’t think for one moment that those of us who find it odd will have any impact on its widespread usage. It will keep going and going like the Energizer Bunny until its current popularity wears off. Then it will retire to the place where old and tired buzzwords go. It will not be alone. Possibly “vibrant” will be there, along with “engagement” and “influencer”.

They will feast on Lyonnaise Potatoes and Spring Mix in their open concept home with elevated furnishings and moments of luxury.

Are there any currently popular words that make you wince, rub you the wrong way or just plain puzzle you? Let’s have a little word play today.

Village Green/Town² Comments

Comments

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents. When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...

F ³: We Are Not Entitled

A college student went missing. His family and friends were distraught. The community was encouraged to be on the lookout and spread the word. Days passed. They must have been agonizing days for those who cared about the missing student. Thoughts that foul play had been involved cannot have been far from their thoughts. Then, at last, the student was found. Alive. The news was shared with the public. So. Much. Relief. A family had been reunited with their child. Even though we know that life is complicated, I think it is okay to accept this as a happy ending and leave it at that. But the world of social media says no. For every expression of joy at the news came questions and even judgement. It became clear to me that some folks felt entitled to an explanation. They wanted the backstory. It’s as though they felt that, by enlisting the help of the public on social media, the authorities now owed them all the details. Television dramas often weave curr...

Separate and Unequal

Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not. It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...

Village Green/Town²

Search This Blog