We may add "mellow" to the list of banned words, I hope, especially as it applies to music.

When I taught Music Appreciation (there's a euphemism for ya; [Yagi] does anyone still teach music appreciation?) as a young idealist, [idealistic] I found that youthful Long Islanders were prone to describing Billy [Biltmore] Joel, or Prince, or Haydn, or anyone else's [Elsevier] music as mellow, first, last and always.

To prime their pumps as writers, I banned that word, as well as a whole list of mushy, non-informative [noninteracting] words. Wish I could find that list of banned words now.

More to the point, I wish I had a computer with a disc drive that could read the disc it's on. Yikes! [Yoder] That was 1984/85.

This post has been "spell-checked," [spelled] with the suggested correct spellings in brackets. Where on earth do we come up with such correct spellings for perfectly good words? Biltmore Joel, anyone? No thanks, I Love you Just the Way You Are.

Welcome, Argasser. I like your take on Anu's comments in today's AWAD. I'll have to think about other examples: meanwhile, the spell-check function here has earned the nickname Ænigma, deservedly so.

Welcome, indeed, argasser! Anyone who wishes to ban *certain words to describe music is barking up my tree, but you reminding me of that *Biltmore Joel song has interacted with me and now I'm all mellow inside.

I have a working (I think) Commodore 64 that we might be able to yank those files out into.

...does anyone still teach music appreciation?)

My old Univ. does:

http://condor.depaul.edu/~mfarahat

I think most higher ed. schools offer basic *survey courses from each of these three arts: music/literature/visual which does not much more than offer some sense of the major periods of those art form's recorded history, and are offered to students who are building required credits for a liberal arts degree yet not toward a degree in any of those (three) artistic fields of *study.

EDIT : Sorry, I just saw your web link... I imagine I didn't have to tell you about the Univ. music experience... d'oh!!!

********

"Beautiful" may have been one of those words, but some music *is just so.

(ps - you don't know someone who goes by the name of "baronia" do ya?)

(pps - don't be a *Stranger)

(ps - you don't know someone who goes by the name of "baronia" do ya?)

If you spelled it "Boronia," he might. [/ahem] (but she no longer posts here, does she)

That would be "spelt it", Mom .

(I did go back and fix tree other spellin' issues... geeez!)

I struggle to keep up with the insider language of the young. Now that my offspring are grown, I have to depend upon the youngsters in my congregation to keep me attuned to what language is in and what has become the language of dinosaurs. One of the ones that confused me the most was the use of the word "bad" to mean "good." If I said that I have a bad cold, that means it is bad, which is bad. If I say you have a bad ride, that means your car is good, which is good. How you s'posed to tell?

In reply to:

---

How you s'posed to tell?

---

You're not. Not at your age.

Bingley

> ...does anyone still teach music appreciation?)

BBC World has an ambitiously titled programme called "How to listen" - so some people are still interested in 'learning to listen'. I recently read about an digital interactive guide to opera which you can listen to in London during(!) performances. It is streamed onto you hand set (PDA) and you can learn, for example, about the leitmotif currently being played and how it is adapted from the 1st movement. Pretty interesting for students, but I cannot imagine the purists would happy with someone fiddling with a backlit gadget while they're trying to get on board with La Boheme.


F.S. writes:
One of the ones that confused me the most was the use of the word "bad" to mean "good." ...How you s'posed to tell?

Don't worry 'bout it. Youze iz hella sick to uz, no matter what, nawamean peeps.

> Youze iz hella sick to uz, no matter what, nawamean peeps.

w00t!

How you s'posed to tell?

Tone of voice. Context.

Just cuz you a pathetic old geezer don't mean you cain't learn no new langidge. Lookit me.

I "bad" still used in that sense?

Bingley's response reminds me of similar response in the 60's when adults complained they couldn't tell the difference between the sexes of hippies and protestors.

If you can't tell the difference, it doesn't matter to you. You're out of the loop.

If you can't tell the difference, it doesn't matter to you. You're out of the loop.

Bad/good reminds me of the TV show Spin City in which some rappers explain to the mayor that "phat" means good. He thinks for a moment than says "Then my ex-wife was wonderful."

The word my English teacher banned was "nice". She described such words as weedy and insisted on woody words that had some strength to them.

That's not very nice.

I think the very anaemia of "nice" is itself descriptive. One can use "nice" precisely because it has been so thoroughly washed of any strength of meaning.

One can use "nice" precisely because it has been so thoroughly washed of any strength of meaning.

That's a nice distinction.

>That's a nice distinction.


I'm thinking there's a barb in there somewhere.

> there's a barb in there somewhere.

No, he always dresses like that.

he always dresses like that.

Ye ken.

Yes but a nice distinction isn't a weedy nice it's a precise nice worth twice the price. And damning with faint nice's is sarcasm which isn't nice but it's not weedy neither.