Date: Fri, 2 Jan 1998 13:56:56 EST From: AAllan Subject: Legible Superior anti-list Sorry for the clutter in the previous posting of this story! I'll try again: ----------- Word police think the linguistic value of 'yadda, yadda, yadda' is zip, zero, nada Reuters News Service SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. -- The word police at Lake Superior State University nominated a New Year's list of slang words and cliches they want banned Wednesday, issuing a plea that speakers avoid the annoying "yadda, yadda, yadda." Other words and phrases failing the school's standard for proper English usage were the abbreviated greeting "whassup?" or the even shorter " 'sup?", the confessional "my bad" and the insulting "talk to the hand" (not to my face). Since 1976, the university's public relations staff has solicited nominations for its New Year's list of cliches, slang words or redundancies that crop up in current usage and deserve banishment. Instead of "whassup?" the school suggested people just try saying hello. "It's passe," said nominator Greg Arceri of Northville, Mich., of the greeting. Many found the oft-repeated phrase "my bad" to be an infantile alternative to admitting a mistake, and others opined that "yadda, yadda, yadda" was merely an irritating substitute for "and so on." The overused "Generation X" came in for criticism -- possibly from those in the 20-something age group -- for being a bland moniker deserving a replacement, although no suitable one was offered. Some favored words and prefixes used by the media were also excoriated. The superlative "ever" as in "the best film adaptation of a John Grisham novel ever!" was viewed as an unneeded superlative that is redundant. The prefix "re-" was so overused that one contributor to the list suggested "we should re-double our efforts to re-think this issue" before reusing it. In addition, the school suggested that athletes who insist on giving "110 percent" should be held to it, and anyone who announces plans to "take it to the next level" ought to be held back. The phrase "show me the money," popularized by the football player played by Cuba Gooding Jr. in the movie Jerry McGuire, was seen as funny once -- but no more. And casino operators ought to be instructed to quit calling their sport "gaming" when everyone knows it's a euphemism for gambling, gambling, gambling. Yadda, yadda, yadda.