Most of those of you who know me are well aware that I am not quite perfect, yet.
Whatever there is about me that is good, is due to the hard word of someone else. For much of my life I have made a living with the way I talk. Don Williams had one of my favorite songs, "Good ol' boys like me". My favorite line in that song is, "I learned to talk like the man on the 6 o'clock news". I never made the 6 o'clock news BIG TIME, but I had my share of success. Our English and Speech teachers at BBC poured their hearts and souls into trying to make us all successful people and I believe that they did a great job. I remember how they would cringe when someone started a sentence with "UMMM". To them that was a dead give away the speaker had no idea what he or she was about to say. I have always prided my self on NOT doing that. There are so many people who make a lot of money and can barely speak American English crowding the airwaves these days. I don't even watch local TV news anymore, the politics are bad enough but the grammar in unbelievable. Now there is a "vocal disease" going around, actually it is an epidemic. That dreaded "UMMM" has been replaced with "SO" that is equally stupid. a word that has absolutely no relationship to what follows and it is driving me nuts. It goes right along with, "Bottom Line". "End of the day" and a dozen other useless, trite, meaningless phrases and words that broadcast in "ALL CAPITAL LETTERS" that the speaker is barely literate.
Other stupid speechisms..........when addressing a gender mixed group.."You guys" when some of those being addressed are men but some are women and NOT GUYs. Even worse is "Your guys" as in something pertaining to all individuals being addressed.
Now there is an Insurance commercial where this teen aged young man says, referring to his mother and father..."Thanks to Your guyses good planning". BARF! Roll over Mrs. Vaughn and a half dozen other wonderful ladies.
Sorry to bore you but my wife is tired o hearing me scream at the TV and I have to tell someone. Thanks for listening.
1. "All in all"..looks like a rainy day..what does all in all mean?
2. "A low pressure SITS over the far west". B.B. Comer teacher says, "A person SITS,a hen SETS".
3. "The CURRENT temperature is NOW 78 degrees". Isn't current the same as NOW?
4. So many news people on Birmingham Tv pronounce CULLMAN,AL..COOMAN, now most of them think that is correct?
5. None of the Birmingham TV folks with a Journalism degree can ad lib, as in talk sensibly without a script.
6. Language has changed. Even with bad hearing,I understand men speaking on TV. Younger women talk like their favorite teen female idols or idiots and I am not able to understand them very well.
7. It's just a personal choice, but..I don't like to watch men on TV that sound like girls..and, I don't care much for women that act and sound like men!
8. However, I do like folks that feel as I do and agree with my every thought.