farmdoc's blog post number 616

I’ve read Don Watson’s books Death Sentence and Weasel Words. Which maybe doesn’t tell you much, but it does tell you I’ve more than a passing interest in words. Which stands to reason, as I earn my living writing medical reports composed of nothing more than words. So I’m a keen observer of new words and phrases. And of old words and phrases with new meanings. Enter Caroline Baum (pictured). She’s a New York-based columnist for Bloomberg News Service. (Arguably she’s most famous for mentioning Sarah Palin’s tits on US national television; but that’s another story.) I write of Baum today because of this article in yesterday’s Age. It moves from Baum musing about end-of-year lists, to her list of six top ‘trite, overused words and phrases’. They’re all in the category of old words and phrases with new meanings. And as a list aficionado, I reckon Baum’s list’s a fairly accurate one. But I do criticise her for her two adjacent adjectives ‘trite, overused’ – because my dictionary defines ‘trite’ as ‘repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse’, and so only one of these adjectives is essential (and the other one is gratuitous). However I really appreciate the reference to one of my all-time favourite movie characters – ‘Chauncey Gardiner, the child-like sage in Jerzy Kosinski’s Being There’. Finally, please forgive me for this non ‘List Friday’ post about a list. It’s nearly the end of 2009. And I just couldn’t help myself.

farmdoc's blog post number 517

Nowadays usage of the label ‘environmentalist’ has a distinctly negative connotation. As if environmentalists have an agenda other than a better world for everyone – including non-environmentalists. And the label ‘greenie’ is even more derogatory. Indeed I can’t say I’ve ever heard it used in a positive context. I think that regarding the environment and related topics, the use of some words takes on a significance that words used in other areas of human knowledge doesn’t, and never will. I don’t know why this is so. Perhaps because the topic of the environment is so contentious; compounded by the chasmic divide between the level of education and socio-cultural awareness of environmentalists, and that of their opponents. Previously I’ve quoted Lewis Carroll: ‘When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less’. Vis-à-vis the environment, one word fitting this quote oh so snugly is ‘greenwash’ – which I’ve mentioned four times previously. Another one, which I saw for the first time here a few days ago, is 'localwash'. Localwashing’s a form of greenwashing wherein businesses claim to be local when actually…they aren’t. It’s an invention of unscrupulous, greedy and deceptive people. In 2008, 98% of eco-labelled products were at least partly greenwashed [1] So stay alert for localwashing. It’s here. Now.

farmdoc's blog post number 308

Lewis Carroll coined the word portmanteau meaning a word derived from combining two separate words. The homepage of Richard Branson’s Virgin Corporation has links to Responsible Business Practice that ‘ensures that we manage our impact on society and the environment’, the Virgin Earth Challenge that was launched because ‘A solution is needed of the utmost urgency To Save the Earth’, the Virgin Green Fund that was established ‘to invest in companies in the renewable energy and resource sectors in the US and Europe’, and the Virgin Unite not-for-profit charity ‘to improve the social and environmental lives of others’. Reading that, you’d believe Virgin’s an environmentally aware corporation. I did too. Until I read this week it’s made a bid to buy Honda’s Formula 1 team. Currently the sale’s not finalised. But the mere fact Branson’s been sniffing around F1 has obliterated his environmental credibility – crushed it to zero – notwithstanding all Virgin’s environmental initiatives. It renders them pure greenwash (i.e. a portmanteau word). Nothing more than clever marketing to increase Virgin’s profit by pretending environmental concern. Prima facie, motor racing’s environmental lunacy. Undoubtedly you’d know that, Richard. Consider yourself an environmentalist, do you? Lewis Carroll wrote: ‘When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less’. And, Richard, remember the fate of the character saying those words: Humpty Dumpty.