CORRUPTIONS OF THE LANGUAGE—

When the language is abused I feel like someone ran their fingernails down a slate blackboard.

Here’s a prime example; the trendy advertising phrase “We’ve got it!” That translates to “We have got it.” Egad.

How about this; “Our Zit Zapper is the most unique..." blah, blah, blah! Uniqueness does not come in degrees. It is either unique or it is not.

Here’s one from a Milwaukee educator recently, “Folks have to rise themselves up....” Tell me, how do you rise down?

How about this dandy redundancy; “Consensus of opinion”? The word “consensus” does not need the prepositional repetition.

And, this one I just heard on a TV weathercast; “It is snowing at this point in time....” The first three words are sufficient, thank you. What else would “It is snowing” mean; it is snowing yesterday?

Of course, my opening symbolism regarding “...a slate blackboard” is doomed to failure. With over half our population now below the age of 25 the majority of folks will not even know what a slate blackboard is.

I guess I’ll just smile and trundle on. It’s less painful that way.