I was going to write about yesterday’s rejection by Dutch voters of the EU Constitution*, but I think we’re all in agreement as to the implications regarding member nation sovereignty and cultural assimilation. Instead, I’d like to turn my attention to a far more pressing issue, and that is the ever increasing annoyance of certain local TV newscasters to use the word “busted” in place of far more elegant alternatives.<\/p>\n
You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a reporter telling us that “the windows were busted out,” or “the water main busted around midnight,” or “the vandals busted up furniture and computer equipment.” This engenders in me the same reaction as fingernails across a blackboard (you do remember blackboards, don’t you?) or seeing Rosie O’Donnell on a made-for-TV movie.<\/p>\n
I perceive this to be a generational phenomenon, by the way. The practice seems to be more prevalent on one local station (no names, of course, but the network rhymes with “In Bee See”) where some of the newscasters are younger than most of my socks. My advice to them is to grab a thesaurus, wherein they’ll find all sorts of wonderful alternatives, thereby freeing me up to write about my first love: those zany European political antics.<\/p>\n