NASTY 4-LETTER WORDS

By DELL ARTHUR

I don’t know about you but I find vulgar, despicable four letter words offensive. And the one that comes to mind, and at the head of my personal list, is the word “BLOG”!

            Everyone knows that writers are a sensitive lot when it comes about how their work is viewed. For those in the academic realm writing a paper describing some great discovery, theory or opinion takes pleasure seeing their articles published in prestigious publications and read only by those of similar academic interest. But for a common person as me, this reading requires a dictionary to get past the title. Yet their work can be considered nothing more than a BLOG.

And there are the science fiction writers, the novelists, the adventure story tellers, the recipe cooking books publishing their favorite recipes and dishes, and authors describing different inventions and ideas, and most of all we can’t leave out the political writers espousing their personal agendas and prejudices which most of us don’t give a toot about--all fall under one title; BLOG.

And I find this disgusting!

            Whatever happened to the romance of literature, writing and the written word? Why aren’t working journalists, columnist, poets and just plain hacks like me, afforded the luxury of more dignified titles when we publish something on line? The biographers, it appears, are the only ones specially identified as a BLOG.

It’s offensive and hurts our feelings! And in this day and age everyone knows that feelings are the most important part of our public fabric. If we hurt someone’s feelings either by hint, glair or snide remark, we most likely will wind up in court defending a lawsuit. Worse yet, it could be considered a hate crime and then we are really in trouble!

Why doesn’t political correctness fall under BLOG?

Searching Webster’s New World College dictionary, fourth edition dated 2007, the word BLOG is described as follows: 1. Biographer, 2. Biographical; 3. Biography. The question is how does a writer composing an essay (opinion) on the subject of the sex lives of sugar ants fall into any of these categories? Therefore how can such an interesting and tantalizing story be considered a BLOG?

Going back to Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary published by Merriam-Webster, Inc., in 1984, the word BLOG isn’t even listed.

Every creative writer knows what they compose readers will hold as treasured works of genius with breathless admiration. I am sure every writer believes they have yet to write the “Great American Novel,” and they are just the one to do it; it’s just they haven’t gotten around to it yet. It would make a marvelous BLOG.

Have you read a newspaper lately? Today’s journalists seem to hold that the old formula of who, what, when, why as onerous if not just plain un-necessary. Why print facts? Isn’t a news story more exciting to read if embellished with a little opinion? Perhaps this is what formulated the word “BLOG.” I don’t know.

It used to be a newspaper article had all the information in the first paragraph. “…Police report that John Doe was apprehended at 1 a.m., this morning shortly after allegedly stealing a piggy bank from six-year old Anna Marie Jones’ bedroom home, 1234 Anystreet.”

Then the story would continue with additional information. The reason stories were written this way was because of space. News stories were written so that to make an article fit into available space the editor could cut the story from the bottom and still retain the essentials of the piece.

Not so today.

The same story outlined regarding the piggy bank theft today will usually be reported as, “…A sobbing little six-year old girl awoke this morning only to discover her treasured pink piggy bank, a gift from her grandmother last year who is now recovering from a hip injury in a nursing home, that contained four dimes, two nickels and fifteen penny’s, was missing. Thinking she had merely misplaced it she spent 10 minutes searching her bedroom and under her pillow before calling her mother. Her untouched lollipop was still sitting on her bed stand.”

That is the type of lead paragraph you will usually now read in the morning edition of the “Daily No News.” By the third or fourth paragraph the name of the victim might appear as well as the suspect picked up by the police—maybe.

As written could this story be considered a BLOG?

 

Now I’m not knocking the writer for such garbage since this is the type of journalist most commonly turned out by journalism schools today. But this type of trash, I believe, would qualify as a BLOG. And perhaps this is where the description and use of the word began.

And to top it off if there is space to fill, rather insert a short news article; the art editor will simply slip in a four or five column picture of someone spinning a hula hoop.

 So much for the written word; is a picture considered a BLOG?

It is hard to imagine the works of such great newspapermen of past years as Hal Boyle, Jim Bishop or Ernie Pyle writing as a BLOG. And what about such wonderful authors as John Steinbeck, Edwin O’Conner, William Faulkner or Ernest Hemmingway? Would it be accurate to list their books as a BLOG?

Shame, shame, shame!

To me the word BLOG connotes no more imagination than moss growing on a rock. The word fails to exude any sense of excitement or interest. In fact it is best associated with another four letter word, BLAH!

So, life being what it is I’ll just continue to BLOG along.