The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1954-06-25

Here's a suggestion for the Tribune:
The lad I'd drown in whey and curds
Is he who says, "n other words"
For while there is frequent need of saying thing
over in more compact or simple way. this phrase
in other words is not good introduction for the
emended simplfied statement. II is not good
because it has eech-like tendency to fix upon
speakers style and forever ruin it. In other words
is almost as devastating habit as "as il we're"
Now the poor victim of the "as it were's" is
neither more nor less than person diseased This
is an affliction more cfinging than cancer or TB.
The with as-itwereits is more TO be pltied
than censlred he's more to be helped than de-
spised Thus do we adapt old song. And here's
a new song:
All. weep FOR the hspless him or her
Who's caught the germ Of "as 1t were"
There seems to be slight easing off of the re
Gently epidemic expression, eat the moment The
good word "now" Is coming back into It's own. But
it has battle with reiuvenated presently" in the
meaning of st present" Long, long age when GER
tain songs to me were so DEAR the word presently
meant "at present" Then for many and many
long cycle OF time presently" meant soon or
in little while" in the sentence, I'll speak to
him presently" And now the original meaning is
fighting its way back Meanwhile at the moment"
is ussing its way out thanks be Therefore sing;
That persons in mental foment
Who's always saying, AT the moment"
Another word that is evidently past its heyday
is the word "some" in the meaning of about"
year two back Time aid AeaCSlGeek and other
reviews and papers were eopiously blstered with
some Ii about five hundred persons attended
ball, the papers said that some five hundred
present If reporter estimating the cost of
a public work, he would write that some
three m Millions were spent the pro-
iect," Nowadays some" has pretty well gone back
to It's crossword meaning of any or "a few or
"a small amount" and has lost IFS prepostona
use.
Here and there you will find survivor of the
unhappy army that used to say See what l
mean?" Know what | mean?" Casually short
ened to what | mean'1 as part of nearly every
sentence they uttered And the lad who says, Nov
look" as impressive Introductory phrase for
cry unmportant thing he has to say is still with
us but in diminishing numbers.
"At all times" as a needlessly heightened sub
stitute for always" is another expression that is
happily on the wane But everybody remembers the
tresome thing, with its sham mpressiveness and
show of official authority; Every driver must have
his car in complete control at all times. He must
have his drivers license with him at all times. He
must be attentive at all times to road directions
and warning signals"
And, by the way, have you noticed that the
Camel people have seen the light? No longer do we
read or hear that more doctors smoke Camels
than any other cigarette lSmokeS Camels). The
phrasing has been changed that the sentence
will parse Now we read and hear that More Camels
smoked than any other cigarette But just
Camels come back under the jurisdiction OF the
elementary English grammar Chevrolet breaks
out Of bounds and tells us that more people drive
Chevrolets than any other make of The sentence
means, logically considered that more people drive
Cheyrolets than any other make of drives Chev-
roetS
The completely meaningless more or less
and the curcueS with which announcers round out
their stumbling statements.-such, for example
as "and everything of that sort" and so forth
and on, are still constantly heard Sometimes
the use of such expressions brings plain absurdty
into remark When the TV man says that good
citizens are eager 10 help armed forces by con
tributing to the boodbank and everything of that
sort" one Is moved TO wonder just what other
things there OF that sort. To be sure the words
and everything Of that sort are not meant TO
have meaning These words are like the fonrishes
person may add to his signature; pretty perhaps
but OF no significance Specification. There is
grand one, seldom heard these days. and so forth
and on, and all like that"
Well Bill Nye remarks let us so live
that when We pass on aequsintances will not
be Immediately and uproariously reconciled to our
departure"