David McCullough Urges BC Graduates To Speak Properly: Cut The “Like!”
Pulitzer Prize winning author David McCullough has a suggestion for what young people can do for their country.
“Please, please do what you can to cure the verbal virus that seems increasingly rampant among your generation,” McCullough implored Boston College’s class of 2008 at commencement ceremonies Monday.
He said he’s particularly troubled by the “relentless, wearisome use of words” such as like, awesome and actually.
“Just imagine if in his inaugural address John F. Kennedy had said, ‘Ask not what your country can, you know, do for you, but what you can, like, do for your country actually,” he said.
Graduates apparently thought his speech was, like, awesome. They gave him a standing ovation.
Gee, I feel the same way about the over/mis use of the term/concept “seems.”
It either is, or it ain’t.
Ah, too late !!! Grads and Teens are what we made them !!! If we didn’t teach them enough vocabulary and grammar while children and give them good eamples of spoken and written English (NONE found on TV of course, except for PBS, which kids don’t watch much after Sesame Street), it’s OUR OWN FAULT !!!
No problem.
>>It either is, or it ain’t.
That seems to be the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever said, Bobbolina. You seem to live in a black and white world. It seems to me that there are many things that fall into a seemingly grey area. And as those operatic icons, Gilbert & Sullivan have made abundantly clear (or so it seems), “things are seldom what they seem”. You know, skim milk masquerading as cream, and all. It seems to me that you are a fairly un-nuanced guy.
#4–Mustard==you and all other epistemologically challenged iconoclasts have fallen apart at the seams.
Gud postor.
It’s my awsome and I’ll decry it if I want to.
>>you and all other epistemologically
>>challenged iconoclasts have fallen
>>apart at the seams
Bobster, the only conclusion I can draw is that you spent your entire Economic Stimulus Package check on 8-balls and Mad Dog. You’re making less and less sense over time.
#7–Mustard, seems to me you are feigning obtuseness. Am I not making sense (to you) or do you simply disagree?
There is “sense” in what I say. Maybe lost in the humor. Don’t we all mostly post for ourselves?
My favorite is “yeah”. It’s funny to hear someone that’s declared an education use yeah all the time. Another that makes me laugh is white folk using the black speak “ax”. That’s just hilarious and if they Oprah bob their head back and forth while talking it’s even funnier. Ohyeah!
>>Mustard, seems to me you are feigning
>>obtuseness.
Au contraire, Mr. Bobbolina. I’m not feigning obtuseness, nor am I obtuse. You’re just not making any sense at all.
Set up a pollmonkey poll with a yes/no question “Do you have any idea what the fuck point “you and all other epistemologically challenged iconoclasts have fallen apart at the seams” makes?” and get back to us with the results.
It SEEMS to me that you’ve either been infected with the same verbal virus that Pulitzer Prize winner McCullough was complaining about, or the Stimulus Package check went to 8-balls and Mad Dog.
I think it’s sad that even co-workers my age (late 20s) still talk this way. Nothing like briefing a high-ranking military commander and my colleague pipes up with “Like, yeah – that’s an awesome idea!” I’ll need dentures by the time I’m 30 with all the teeth grinding I do.
#10–Mustard, its not evil to be obtuse, but to tear down others who offer you an education not found on bumper stickers: is.
You can do better.
>>but to tear down others who offer you an
>>education not found on bumper stickers
Bobbie, are you seriously suggesting that YOU would be qualified to offer ME “an education”?
To quote the Prodigious Prognosticator of All Things Tech: HAR!!!!!!!!!
#13–Mustard==are you suggesting that anyone on the blog doesn’t know something all the others don’t?
So, yes, absent the morons, trollers, and truthers, we all have something to teach one another.
Only a fool would say otherwise.
>>are you suggesting that anyone on the blog
>>doesn’t know something all the others don’t?
I didn’t say that, Bobster. What I said was (and I quote) “are you seriously suggesting that YOU would be qualified to offer ME “an education”?”
Please, as LogicMaster of the Universe, you ABOVE ALL OTHERS should know better than to stay away from the dreaded “straw man” argument.
#15–Mustard, I’ve never seen you sputter before. There is no straw man. I am on this blog and fitting the statement made so of course I know things you don’t as you know things I don’t. But, as per your revealed attitude, ONLY you could teach me, because only I am open to it.
Not a pretty picture.
>>I am on this blog and fitting the statement
>>made so of course I know things you don’t
>>as you know things I don’t.
Bobster, your communications skills are rapidly swirling the drain. Half the time, I have no idea wtf you’re even saying.
In any case, getting back on point, I’ve never observed (nor have I heard anyone complain about) misuse of the word “seem”.
I guess that statement was part of your unending need to see your words in print, and didn’t really mean ANYTHING (otherwise, you might have given a few examples). My bad.
Great pic… Who’s awesome? Your awesome…
Shouldn’t that be “You’re” awesome
# 4 Mister Mustard
“And as those operatic icons, Gilbert & Sullivan have made abundantly clear (or so it seems), “things are seldom what they seem”. ”
Are you a fan of Gilbert & Sullivan? If so I will say I am impressed. Although, HMS was not their best show.
# 1 bobbo
Mustard is right. Very few things except in the world of mathematics are absolute.
>>Are you a fan of Gilbert & Sullivan?
You betcha, Buttercup. And I kind of like (or so it seems) HMS Pinafore. As well as The Pirates of Penzance, The Sorcerer, The Mikado, etc., it’s all good.
#17–Mustard==what else is an education but being told things you haven’t heard before???????
#10–J==what is Mustard right about? Seems is not synonymous with exactitude less than absolute.
—-and that picture screams out for “Who’s pawsome.”
# 20 Mister Mustard
I am impressed. You do not strike me as a theatre person Mustard. “Mustard loves the topsy turvy stories.” Who woulda thunk it.
Thats my pop, aint he bitchin?
>>Seems is not synonymous with exactitude
>>less than absolute.
Jesus, Bobbo. Remember the post about the right-wing talk show host? The one where the other guy said “when you’re in a hole, stop digging”? Stop digging.
>>“Mustard loves the topsy turvy stories.”
Hey, what can I tell you, “J”? Every once in a while it’s the day we mock the prig and shock the priest.
# 25 Mister Mustard
Your a “Menken & Schwartz” fan too? OMG!!! Mustard I like more each day. lol
# 21 bobbo
“what is Mustard right about? Seems is not synonymous with exactitude less than absolute.”
“Exactitude” is your word not mine. Mine was just “absolute”. That is how “I” define “your” black or white position. It has many definitions and I have used it properly. I would like you to show me the word that has a definition of “exactitude less than absolute” Strawman!
#26–J==I could, but will refrain from going down your tangent. But my own posting of the overuse of the word/concept “seems” is also a tangent. Characterizing a word as overused does not form an absolute opinion nor one that is black or white===just overused.
>>Mustard I like more each day. lol
Better watch it, “J”, or McCullough will tell us to “get a room” again. I know you think I’m gay, but don’t bet on it!
>>Your a “Menken & Schwartz” fan too?
Btw, how can you not love a pair who between them came up with “Godspell” and “Little Shop of Horrors”? You might not realize it, but I’m interested in a number of things beyond the Asian/Oriental distinction, and whether or not Italians talk with their hands.
# 27 bobbo
“Characterizing a word as overused does not form an absolute opinion nor one that is black or white===just overused.”
I quote
“It either is, or it ain’t.” – bobbo
I don’t know bobbo. That looks pretty black or white or absolute too me.
# 28 Mister Mustard
“I know you think I’m gay, but don’t bet on it!”
No I don’t. At least not anymore. Not too mention just because a person likes theatre or musical theatre does not mean they are gay! lol “Not that there is anything wrong with that!” BTW I am happily married to a beautiful woman who has always been a woman. lol I don’t swing both ways either.
I was simply impressed that you appear more cultured than I thought. It was a complement.