Saturday, September 03, 2011

English is a strange language

"Underserved populations" is the term used for groups for which researchers and politicians get government grants, so there may be lack of resources somewhere, but "underserved" they aren't. There are special programs to track them down to offer them more entitlements.

"Bloombito" is a Twitter acount which ridicules Mayor Bloomberg's attempts to woo the Spanish speaking population of NYC with the worst Spanish you've ever heard.

"Public servant" is a government employee who may earn 3x more than a private sector employee who pays his salary.

"Family balancing" is aborting the female fetus through sex selection.

"Intellectual disability" is a new term used by those wordsmiths who gave up on "mentally retarded" and "developmentally disabled," but the word intellectual used to have some snob appeal and usually meant people at the other end of the IQ spectrum.

"Current thinking" is a sloppy euphemism that usually throws out what was current 3-4 years ago, but it it used rather than citing the document.

"Adopt a pet" is something you do when you can't give birth to one.


"Reality TV" is completely unreal.


"Food insecurity" has replaced "hunger" because not enough people were hungry to fund 25 programs and all the government workers dependent on them.

"Food stamps"--we don't have them anymore, they are now SNAP, supplemental nutrition assistance program, and I think it's a plastic card.

2 comments:

Deborah M. said...

It's so Orwellian. It would be funny if it weren't so frustrating.

Deborah M. said...

"public servant" - did I tell you about the post office employee who - with 8 or 9 people in line, 15 minutes before closing - put our her "closed" sign and whined "I can't take this any more". And left 2 other people to handle the last minute crowd in line.