pet peeves a la eats, shoots & leaves

i've got the tv on in the background and i just caught a clip promoting etalk where guest host hilary duff was blabbing out the "innertainment" industry. like nails on a chalkboard, the ditzified version of the not so hard to pronounce word "entertainment" made me cringe.

not to say that i don't take a few liberties with the queen's english from time to time, but the bastardization of perfectly fine words and the increasingly lax standards in television reporting are frightening. yesterday, gord martineau from city tv (crusty ass- helmet haired-short man with a complex that he is) actually said the word "ass" in his intro to a piece about a farm where old donkeys go to die. apparently the tasteless adolescent attempt at humour gave at least some editor along the way a twinge of intellectual guilt and they had poor old gord spell the word as a way to cushion what they knew would be a low in his career. come on, people! i know it's citytv but still!

my all time fave has to be the invention of the word "orientated" as in "he was very goal orientated". well, he can't be that goal driven cause the schmo doesn't know that he's goal oriented. i've heard the term used so often now that it'll only be a matter of time before i come across it in print! am i alone on this one, or has it made its way to the latest version of webster's? nevermind. i'd rather not know. now that homer's "doh" has made it it's only a matter of time before the old faithfuls go the way of the dinosaur.

at a workshop yesterday, i heard a woman (professional, mid thirties) say the word "fustrated" as she was describing a situation. writing it off as a dialect thing i simply smirked (snobbily, i'll admit it) and forgot about it, until...she pulled out a piece of chartpaper she'd brought with her as part of her presentation which included the word "frustrated" spelled without the "r" ! now i realize that in the grand scheme of things it means nothing and it's kind of shallow but dammit, if you're going to make a presentation have a friend look it over before you leave the office.

aside from word use, inane banter among co-hosts of news shows and flagrantly biased reporting rife with leading quesitons makes anything but sexless tvo an option for real news. (oh how i miss studio two)

don't be shy, send me your bug bears. as lovers of words i'm sure you have stockpiles of the stuff!