I woke up this morning (YAY! – off to a good start) and it was cozy and dark in my bedroom, so I decided to lie there for a while and ruminate. There’s a lot to be said for sleeping in. Now that I’m semi-retired, I can stay in bed for as long as I want most days. I know the world will be waiting for me as always. Finally, I rolled over and got ready to face the day. Things were happening out there; I wasn’t in a hurry to find out what, but thought I might as well gat started.
Part of my problem is that I still need to deal with a lot of information – on the internet, on TV, in magazines, through emails, and on and on… I still have lots of activities that interest me. I lead book groups, I do tons of book reviews, support the efforts of begining writers, and I stay in touch with friends and family. These days, most of that is done via technology. And I gotta say, although tech has been in my life since I was a youngster, old tech was pretty tame and well-mannered. Things these days are a little crazy-making if you ask me.
From the news (local and national) to newsletters, from movies to podcasts, and from the internet to books – people are being a little sloppy with language. Some of that we can blame on AI or whatever was used to create the closed captioning that keeps messing up. But when you’re a picky neatnick like me (someone who wants to really know what’s going on), butchering the language is no way to win me over! Let’s take, for instance, the way names are messed up on news talk shows.
You know what I mean. You’re watching a news show with the sound off (first mistake). The closed captioning should be sufficient, right? Wrong. Unless you don’t care who the president of Uruguay really is, or the name of that cathedral that just fell down in Austria (not Australia). My husband and I like to play a game while watching these oopsies… “guess who they’re really talking about.” Here are a few examples. See if you can figure them out:
my kenzi phills – nate and yay who – cas itty hutch is one – more gun free men – sees her – and somebody named hum freeze
If you try it out on your TV, you can play, too!
And then, there are the numbers. I was watching a weather forecast, and the verbal rehash said the overnight temp would be “41,” while on the graphic it was “43”, and on a comparative chart it said “42.” They were either very mixed up or they were hedging their bets! Watch for some crazy numbers in the news and let me know what you find. Thanks – I don’t want to think I’m alone!
Now, if I no longer had an expectation that I could hear about reality on the news, this might not bother me. But I do, and it does. So I ask you, is this really happening or…
Am I going crazy?
(Oh, before I forget: Mackenzie Phillips, Netanyahu, Cassidy Hutchinson, Morgan Freeman, Caesar, and a guy named Humphries. How’d you do?)
Until next time! Linda
Wordz By Linda Bond 