Angelina Jolie Watch

Of all the things for people to have problems with in this world, a group of linguistics at the Lake Superior State University in Michigan officially “hates” the habit we have of combining celebrity names, ala TomKat and Brangelina. The group has announced that the combining of celebrity names is “so lame and pathetic that it’s “lamethetic”.

Pot, please meet the kettle.

Apparently, every year ‘these guys’ announce a list of words they want banned from the English Dictionary. This years list, “Lake Superior State University’s annual list of words banished “for mis-use, over-use and general uselessness” (Which comes with my commentary just for extra joy and excitement):

• Gitmo - Guantanamo Bay is a little long for bumper stickers, don’t you think? Is this the only university in the history of schools that doesn’t have an acronym?
• Combined celebrity names - But where would we be without FedEx, TomKat, TomKitten and our own beloved Brangelina?
• Awesome - This one is getting a little old
• Gone/went missing - As apposed to location deficient?
• Pwn or pwned, a misspelling of “own” used by online video gamers - They lost me on this one… can they not find the O key?
• Now playing in theaters - What other options do you have?
• We’re pregnant - I’m not a mommy blogger, but I’m with them on this one… what part of “we” is pregnant?
• Undocumented alien - Is illegal… Illegal?
• Armed robbery/drug deal gone bad - A much nicer way to say “innocent people didn’t live”
• Truthiness - Hehehe
• Ask your doctor - Seems a vast improvement over “ask WebMd or your local chat forum”
• Chipotle - Restaurant or pepper?
• i-anything - Huh?
• Search - Search is a problem? Can I put Lake Superior State University in Michigan on the list of words we have problems with?
• Healthy food - Sounds better than “cooked in lard and laced with butter” to me
• Boasts - Again? I must repeat myself? Huh?

This completes the truthiness portion of today’s programming, we will now return to your regularly scheduled lamethetic programming.