by Sue Horner | Jan 14, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
There was some back and forth in the Toronto Star recently about outdated language in reference to people with disabilities. Former Ontario MPP Gary Malkowski, a long-time advocate for those who are deaf, took offence at a Star headline that used the phrase,...
by Sue Horner | Dec 20, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
The gamer term of joy, “w00t,” tops the 30 words and phrases of 2007 listed by BuzzCanuck. Can I get a “w00t”? I was surprised by a few entries, though, that seem to have been around for an awfully long time. What are they doing being on a hot...
by Sue Horner | Nov 6, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
You know technology has truly infiltrated our lives when tech terms apply to people. A client recently asked what my bandwidth was. It used to mean how much data could be sent through a network or modem, but now it’s evolved to mean “how much extra time do...
by Sue Horner | Oct 1, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
I’ve ranted before about the bad things that happen to good quotes at the hands of executives, so I was pleased to see my sentiments echoed in an article (sorry, I tried to link to it but it may be one of those limited-time-access things) by the impassioned...
by Sue Horner | Aug 1, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
No wonder employees find it hard to understand company “leaders” (the new word for managers, apparently). The latest “BigExec-speak” I ran into this week: Action as a verb, as in, “We’ll action those areas.” Ugh. Criticality....
by Sue Horner | Jul 18, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
What happens when a phrase references old technology? It becomes a prime candidate for being misspelled. I thought of this when spotting “put us through the ringer” in my local newspaper. The word should be spelled “wringer,” as in the old...
by Sue Horner | Jul 12, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Talk about a never-ending job! Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (Eleventh Edition) recently added some new words, chosen among submissions from readers for their favourite word not in the dictionary. Sadly, one of the top choices was...
by Sue Horner | May 1, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
MarketingSherpa’s free weekly newsletter led me to the wonderfully named Gobbledygook Manifesto, which was cited as a winner in its 2007 Viral Marketing Hall of Fame. David Meerman Scott calls himself an “online thought leadership strategist” (hmm,...
by Sue Horner | Mar 17, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Did you know that there is another “holiday season” approaching? I know this because a weekend flyer from a local grocery store mentions it several times. It was a little puzzling, at first, because it’s March. The only “holiday season”...
by Sue Horner | Feb 12, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Now here’s a word you don’t run across very often: bedeguar. I had to search many places to find out it means “a gall produced on rosebushes,” gall being a type of fungus. Looking at that definition, you might be surprised to find out the word was not used in a...
