In light of the Macquarie Dictionary committee deciding that ‘enshittification’ is the new Word of the Year, Paul Koff of Glenhaven suggests “we all pitch in and help them get a new word in for next year. How about ‘Lexifabrication’ – The use of recondite, semi-literate neologisms, in order to desperately attempt to remain relevant.”
“Joining Ray Witherby (C8) this morning, may I present another weasel-worded example of political drivel?” requests John Kouvelis of Neutral Bay. “I increasingly hear the wonderful mendacious line ‘if I’m honest…’ then onward to what is usually a well-prepared untruth! It is paradoxical and unnecessary, just like the endemic ‘moving forward’. There are hundreds of these, but space does not permit, nor my cornflakes, which are becoming soggy.”
Tim Donovan’s addition to the political jukebox has encouraged Allan Gibson of Cherrybrook to put a coin in: “Lesley Gore’s It’s My Party could be updated ‘and lie if I want to’. And Paul Simon’s Call Me Al, renamed Call Me Albo, as the lyrics ‘I need a photo opportunity, I want a shot at redemption, Don’t want to end up a cartoon in a cartoon graveyard’.”
“When it comes to political jargon, ‘what we need’ has long been the accepted code for ‘what I want’,” reckons Adrian Connelly of Springwood.
We thought we’d exhausted the Air Whitlam discussion (C8) but we couldn’t let this item from Ron (ahem) Kerr of Ballina, go: “Working for an airline at Canberra airport, I had plenty of occasions to deal with Mr Whitlam. One time, he asked if any of us had bought his book The Truth of the Matter. I said I would when it came out in paperback. When that time came, and I produced my copy for him to sign, he withdrew his Parker 51 and glanced at my name badge. His eyebrow moved up a fraction of an inch, but he said nothing as he wrote ‘To Ronald ... ’ He was a great man in many ways.”
“My 12-year-old great nephew told my sister he was in the school Christmas concert,” writes Lilian Andrew of Mosman. “On being told it was by Shakespeare, she queried this and asked if he meant Dickens, thinking A Christmas Carol. ‘Oh, yes’, he agreed ‘it must be Dickens’. When asked what part he played, he answered, ‘I’m the one who stabs Julius Caesar!’”
Column8@smh.com.au
No attachments, please.
Include name, suburb and daytime phone.