And this year's winners are. . .

The 2008 Banished Words List has been released from Lake Superior State University. Here are my favorites:

• AUTHOR/AUTHORED - In one of former TV commentator Edwin Newman's books, he wonders if it would be correct to say that someone 'paintered' a picture?
• POST 9/11 - 'Our post-9/11 world,' is used now, and probably used more, than AD, BC, or Y2K, time references. You'd think the United States didn't have jet fighters, nuclear bombs, and secret agents, let alone electricity, 'pre-9/11
• "BLANK IS THE NEW BLANK" - In spite of statements to the contrary, 'Cold is (NOT) the new hot,' nor is '70 the new 50.' The idea behind such comparisons was originally good, but we've all watched them spiral out of reasonable uses into ludicrous ones and it's now time to banish them from use
• BACK IN THE DAY- Outrageous mis- and overuse, mostly by teenagers, e.g., 'This random guy, singing this random song . . .. It was so random.' Grrrrr."
• RANDOM - Outrageous mis- and overuse, mostly by teenagers, e.g., 'This random guy, singing this random song . . .. It was so random.' Grrrrr."
• DECIMATE - 'Decimate' has been turned upside down. It means 'to destroy one tenth,' but people are using it to mean 'to destroy nine tenths
• EMOTIONAL - Reporters, short on vocabulary, often describe a scene as 'emotional.' Well sure, but which emotion? For a radio reporter to gravely announce, 'There was an emotional send off to Joe Blow' tells me nothing, other than the reporter perceived that the participants acted in an emotional way.
• POP - On every single one of the 45,000 decorating shows on cable TV (of which I watch many) there is at LEAST one obligatory use of a phrase such as ... 'the addition of the red really makes it POP.' You know when it's coming ... you mouth it along with the decorator