RIP "Green" - Lake Superior State University Reports It Should Be Banned In 2009

Concrete Is Green photo
Image credit:National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, "Concrete Is Green"

'Green' as a term of popular culture is on life support and barely hanging on: not just because some academic said so, and not because few "green" magazines of 2008 stayed around, and not only because of advert abuses (as pictured above), but because people are screaming to have Green taken off life support. Lake Superior State University, which, since 1971, has published an annual list of words or terms that need to be "banned" from the English language, reports that "green" was the number one balloted word to be rid of in 2009.

Apparently, writing 'green' now is as repulsive as would be screaming "Joe The Plumber" in a crowded theater.

Can we make the transition away from writing "green" before it starts to mean quite the opposite: like how young people call something they really like "sick?"

Based on what ballot submitters told the polls at LSSU, we had better

The ubiquitous 'Green' and all of its variables, such as 'going green,' 'building green,' 'greening,' 'green technology,' 'green solutions' and more, drew the most attention from those who sent in nominations this year.

If you work in PR, consider this statement from one ballot submitter:

"If I see one more corporation declare itself 'green,' I'm going to start burning tires in my backyard."

Via: LSSU

Having seen the results of the balloting, there is no longer any excuse. Only those writers totally stuck inside a g*%$# bubble will, henceforward, use "g*%$#" in a post.

There also is a practical reason to ban 'g*%$#' as a catch phrase. Google, reportedly has had to add an entire clean coal-powered server farm solely to index the growing use of the term, which makes writing "g*%$#" a serious contributor to Google Warming: something the Obama Transition Team needs to put in their suggestion box for 2009. (joke)

RIP g*%$#. From now on in we'll just have to write with carefully crafted, precise phrases to say exactly what we mean. Like, 'those wind turbines are really sexy.'

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