Ban Them All

One of my favorite lists is out! It's the Lake Superior State University 2006 "List of Words and Phrases Banished from the Queen's English of Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness". Given my fascination with both correct and incorrectly used English you will hear about the list now.
After more than 2000 nominations were submitted to the university committee the winners shouldn't surprise us. Most of the media uses the words and phrases on the list often enough to make one feel he or she is "an accident waiting to happen" (It's on the list). Here is this year's list:
- Surreal (we used to just say 'odd' or 'different' but surreal signs more dramatic)
-Hunker down (as in sitting through my long E mails without taking a bathroom break)
-Person of interest ( what police call 'suspects')
-Community of Learners (a trendy term in education circles that means "students")
-Up and Down Vote (Bush and company describe votes they want passed quickly in Congress on iffy matters as 'up and down')
- Breaking news (as opposed to 'unbreaking news' , I guess?)
- Designer breed (Some designers shouldn't be allowed to breed!)
- FEMA (another terrible legacy of Hurricane Katrina) -First time caller (those nuts who call radio talk shows every day and vent incoherently claim to be 'first time callers'
-Pass the savings on to you (What those car salesmen say on TV commercials before raping you at the time of purchase)
-97% fat-free (How do they determine this? Is that better or just tasteless?)
-an accident that didn't have to happen (But what accidents DO have to happen?)
-Junk Science (Global warming, Creationism., bird flu catastrophes and others may be more junk than real)
-Git-r-done (sounds kind of dirty to me)
-Dawg (Those ignorant, thugish, rappers gave us that endearing term)
-Talking points (Isn't that what we used to call 'debaters'?)
-Holiday tree (the politically correct way to avoid saying 'Christmas Tree')
In past years Lake Superior has cited and suggesting banning such words as "metro sexual" ( 2004), chad (2001), baby boomers (1999) and "dtente"( 1976). I could have written that I am "hunkering down" to the "surreal" task of relating "breaking news", but all the phrases in quotes are on the list. Sigh.....this "junk science" is interesting to me, but it sure does limit my expression. It's a good thing Lake Superior doesn't read my blog. I fear I might be banned from sending mail forever if they did.