"...which brings us to: The Word of the Day."
Truthiness Named Word of the Year By ADAM GORLICK, Associated Press Writer Fri Dec 8, 5:04 PM ET SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - After 12 months of naked partisanship on Capitol Hill, on cable TV and in the blogosphere, the word of the year for 2006 is ... "truthiness." The word — if one can call it that — best summed up 2006, according to an online survey by dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster. "Truthiness" was credited to Comedy Central satirist Stephen Colbert, who defined it as "truth that comes from the gut, not books."
"We're at a point where what constitutes truth is a question on a lot of people's minds, and truth has become up for grabs," said Merriam-Webster president John Morse. "`Truthiness' is a playful way for us to think about a very important issue."
Other Top 10 finishers included "war," "insurgent," "sectarian" and "corruption." But "truthiness" won 5-to-1, Morse said.
Colbert, who once derided the folks at Springfield-based Merriam-Webster as the "word police" and a bunch of "wordinistas," was pleased. "Though I'm no fan of reference books and their fact-based agendas, I am a fan of anyone who chooses to honor me," he said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "And what an honor," he said. "Truthiness now joins the lexicographical pantheon with words like `squash,' `merry,' `crumpet,' `the,' `xylophone,' `circuitous,' `others' and others."
Colbert first uttered "truthiness" during an October 2005 broadcast of "The Colbert Report," his parody of combative, conservative talk shows.
The link itself can be found here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061208/ap_on_re_us/word_of_the_year
There are many levels of "how cool is this?" found within the mere concept of Colbert conjuring up a fun throwaway word, and watching it claw its way into the English lexicon. I stand in awe of the man. As it is, my own attempts to get "pyjamallama" into the dictionary have been met with repeated absymal failures.
Hm?
After a week's absence, you don't want pithy links to articles? You actually want me to talk about life, the universe and everything (beyond that whole "42" thing) in this little bit of nowhere. Well, here's the brief summary...
Sunday: "Clean...clean...dishes...buffet! Oooh, and Sesame Street: Old School."
Monday: "Work, as usual."
Tuesday: "Kevin & Donna! Future super Wii action!
Dead Man's Chest! HuzzaaaaAAAH! No Gabe, don't eat the Wiimote!"
Wednesday: "Oh look, a 12-hour shift. And dammit, stop messing up those scarves! I just cleaned those, dammit!"
Thursday: "Another 12-hour shift. And, um...where are today's 40 boxes?"
Friday: "Did the whole damned town just get up today and decide 'hey, let's all go to the mall en masse!' And, um...where are today's 30 boxes and yesterday's 40 boxes?"
Saturday: "Oh look, they have a complimentary massage table out in front of the store. Perfect to relieve the stress I feel as I plan to have a part-timer meet a particularly drawn-out and gruesome demise..."
Sunday: "So...we're due to get 3 days' worth of boxes of Monday, for a grand potential total of 94 boxes? Boy, am I glad last week I scheduled myself off for this coming Monday. Ha ha, suckers!"
So there you have it: a week's worth of activities written in fantastical, pyjamallama glory! (Did it work? Is my word in the dictionary now?)
Today's Lesson: they joy you have today from missing 94 incoming boxes will be inevitably balanced out by the sheer ghastliness that will greet you when you arrive the day after and discover how helpless your employees can be at organizing stock. (Le sigh.)
posted by Phillip at 12:26 PM
