Do This Don’t Do That

If ignorance is bliss–as they say–then I should be one very contented fella. I do try to pay attention to language do’s and dont’s but have abused some of these “banned words” and phrases upon occasions. And you?

Banned Words 2009: I was clueless about the symbol <3 at number 10. I understand viewed right to left it is a heart symbolizing LOVE. I tried to make it something of it with the < on top and the 3 dangling down below and all I could come up with was a symbol that represents the outcome of a failed sex change operation. But that’s just me. from Lake Superior State U.

And from WaPo: the list of “What’s in, What’s Out” for 2009. I’m way not hip enough to even know the outties, much less the even hipper innies. I did notice that “slow blogging” replaces “twittering” and with regard to the former, I saw the Slow Blog Manifesto a few months back and it seemed so like Slow Road blogging (on most days) to not seem noteworthy. On the other hand, if you’re a beat-everybody else to the punch pundit looking a Technorati and digg ranking, well…

Lots of these glib pairs have to do, I suppose, with pop culture, movies, music and television of which I am blissfully ignorant. I find myself pleasantly insulated from most of current phenoms to the extent that, on the rare occasion I’m inflicted by a television unavoidably blaring in an airport terminal, I feel like an alien far far away from Planet Floyd. Nannoo Nannoo, y’all.

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fred
fred

Fred First holds masters degrees in Vertebrate Zoology and physical therapy, and has been a biology teacher and physical therapist by profession. He moved to southwest Virginia in 1975 and to Floyd County in 1997. He maintains a daily photo-blog, broadcasts essays on the Roanoke NPR station, and contributes regular columns for the Floyd Press and Roanoke's Star Sentinel. His two non-fiction books, Slow Road Home and his recent What We Hold in Our Hands, celebrate the riches that we possess in our families and communities, our natural bounty, social capital and Appalachian cultures old and new. He has served on the Jacksonville Center Board of Directors and is newly active in the Sustain Floyd organization. He lives in northeastern Floyd County on the headwaters of the Roanoke River.

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  1. Ah, I used to love the Washington Post List when I lived up there and got the WaPo every day. I’m sorry to see that Fuji apples are out this year.

  2. I’ll admit to keeping an incandescent bulb in my favorite reading lamp – other wise – I can’t see anything!! I don’t like those new bulbs, but I use them (mostly).