Skip to main content

Playing Fetch




 “Stop trying to make ‘fetch’ happen” is a sentence I learned purely from being on the internet. It was quite a while before I learned its context. To give you an idea how pervasive it is, I present here a Google search which I performed just moments ago: 



Search: stop try

Google Suggestions

  • stop try
  • stop trying to make fetch happen
  • stop trying to be god
  • stop trying to be god lyrics
  • stop trying to make fetch happen meme
  • stop trying to make fetch happen gif
  • stop trying to make fetch happen meme generator
  • stop trying
  • stop trying to make fetch happen meme template
  • stop trying to make fetch happen quote

Not quite sure how God got in there but that’s another story altogether.

I found myself contemplating this meme-able moment when I read a recent request on social media. Here are the relevant words:



…live closer to that area but willing to travel to Columbia/HoCo…

“Columbia/HoCo.” An actual sighting in the wild and I didn’t say it. 

At some point on the blog I took to using the term “Columbia/HoCo” to describe the whole shebang. It made sense to me at the time because, while we are all a part of the same county, I saw Columbia in many ways as being a distinctly separate entity within the county. It was deliberately created to be a certain way. The rest of the county evolved differently. The parts of Howard County that aren’t Columbia are more like eachother than like the New American City. That was my reasoning, anyway.

A year or so ago I began to wonder if that word choice was too arrogant and/or Columbia-centric. Perhaps I was smarting from a few too many accusations of “Columbia Privilege.” It occurred to me that Columbia/HoCo might give the impression to others that my entire world view was, “There’s Columbia, and then there’s everybody else.”

Rather like this famous New Yorker cover:



View of the World from Ninth Avenue, Saul Steinberg



Considering that the phrase never caught on in general local usage, this was basically a problem only in my own mind. If I had been hoping to work these words into the local consciousness, I had not succeeded. 

 Stop trying to make “fetch” happen.

Was it arrogant? Disrespectful? Narrow-minded? I didn’t know. I didn’t ask anybody, either. I simply stopped using it.

Former CA president Milton Matthews once told me that he used the term “Columbia and Greater Howard County.”  And I see that the Columbia Association uses those words on its website page about Community Partners. That feels really formal to me, somehow. When I try to imagine using that on the blog routinely it sounds more like a keynote speaker at a Chamber of Commerce meeting.

I’d prefer something more compact that is accurate and inclusive. Does it matter? 

If Language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant. If what is said is not what is meant, then what ought to be done, remains undone.

- - Confucius

Well…it matters to me. 

Howard County and all its component parts is rather like the camel, famously known as a horse put together by a committee. But with us it’s more like several committees.

Who are we? What do we call ourselves? Ideas?

Let me know.









Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Getting Fresh

One of my favorite days in the Spring comes when this year’s list of Farmer’s Markets is released. That happened this week. New this year are markets in Old Ellicott City and the “Merriweather Market” which, according to the address, will be located here . I mistakenly thought at first glance that it was in the new-construction part of the Merriweather District. I find the name confusing considering its actual location. I’m going to guess that this market is an initiative of the Howard Hughes Corporation because the name seems chosen more for branding purposes than anything else.  Alas, the market in Maple Lawn is gone. The thread on the markets on the County Executive’s FB page will provide you with quite the education in who actually runs the Farmers Markets vs what people often think is going on. Short answer: they are not  chosen nor run by the county. Each market is an independent entity, sometimes started by community volunteers, other times supported by local businesses...
1 comment
Read more

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday.  Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was  "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018.  2018 .  But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest.  In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...
1 comment
Read more

What Kids Are Thinking

  It’s a Monday in February, and if you guessed that a lot of Howard County students have the new cell phone policy on their minds, you’d be right. It will mean big changes and it will be stressful, no matter how much good we hope it will do in the long run. But on this particular Monday cell phones might not be top of mind, as amazing as that seems. Some kids will go to school wondering if they or family members will be seized by ICE. Some will fear that their parents’ employment will be purged by the ongoing rampage of Elon Musk and his cronies through Federal Government. Some fear heightened and renewed racism as programs that supprted Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are vilified and destroyed.  Some worry that it soon won’t be safe for them to use the bathroom in school anymore. It goes without saying that some kids fear going to school every day because of the prevalence of school shootings.  And look! Here’s something new to fear. That old hate group, Libs of TikTo...
1 comment
Read more