Dean's World

Here it is: the list you've all been waiting for - Lake Superior State University's 2005 list of banished words.

Here are a couple of our favorites:

BLOG - and its variations, including blogger, blogged, blogging, blogosphere. Many who nominated it were unsure of the meaning. Sounds like something your mother would slap you for saying. "Sounds like a Viking's drink that's better than grog, or a technique to kill a frog." Teri Vaughn, Anaheim, Calif. "Maybe it's something that would be stuck in my toilet." - Adrian Whittaker, Dundalk, Ontario. "I think the words `journal' and `diary' need to come back." - T. J. Allen, Shreveport, La.

POCKETS OF RESISTANCE - "Are we talking about someone not buying a round of drinks or people shooting at each other?" - Rob of Crawley, West Sussex, UK. "Sounds like someone having trouble pulling their hands out of their pants pockets." - Joe Hutley, Las Vegas, NV.

ENEMY COMBATANT - "Makes no sense. Do we have friendly combatants? Neutral combatants? Or how about enemy bystanders? If they are your enemy, just say so." - Bill Sellers, Hampton, Va.

WARDROBE MALFUNCTION - "Janet Jackson's bodice did not `malfunction,'" says John Wetterholt, Woodstock, Ill. "Justin Timberlake pulled too much and too far and I could hear the cogs turning in his publicist's head trying to come up with that excuse!" "It wasn't the wardrobe's fault!" - Jane Starr, Edmonton, Alberta "Sure to be this generation's Watergate, misapplied to all situations both imaginable and not so." - David Edgar, Sydney, Australia

ZERO PERCENT APR FINANCING - sending a dollar to do a nickel's worth of work. Michael Hehn, Ferrysburg, Mich. "They could just say `no interest.'

AND MORE! - The merchants way of giving you something "value added." "Every merchant offers carpets, flooring and more. Can we envision baskets, caskets and more? Need I say less?" - Ray of Willard, Ohio. "Goods and services no longer have limits! Everything marketed can be something else! `It's a hamburger meal, but it's much, much more...It's a time machine, too!" - Mark of Kanata, Ontario.

Here are a few other words that yours truly believes should be banished:

1) He tried to change the subject. In reference to political reporting. It means: that damn politician isn't discussing what we in the press want him to discuss.

2)King of Pop in reference to Michael Jackson. When was the last time he had a big hit?

3) Defining moment. URG! Who ever invented that trite phrase.

4) Manhole repair. This urban phrase is highly offensive, suggesting a sexist mentality. It should be personhole repair.

5)You just don't get it. No, often that means "you just don't agree with me and I get everything because I know it all."

6)Partisan bias. Greatly overworked on the right and the left to the point where it has become a cliche. There are other factors that sometimes may seem like partisan bias but aren't.

7)Not tonight I have a haddock. What female whales say to male whales.

8)Read the whole thing. Becoming part of that wince-inducing language I call blogspeak. How about debe leer la cosa entera or "Read it all" or "Don't expect me to pick out the important stuff, you get off your lazy good for nothing butt and read the original source material so you can see if I represented it fairly or twisted it according to my own beliefs. OK, dorkface?"

9)Pre-owned cars. Yeah. Right.

10) Yeah. Right. Even with the required adolescent eyeroll, "Yeah. Right" is getting truly tiresome and people have to to stop talking in cliches, you know what I mean.... right dude?