Posts Tagged ‘English language’

That said…

Sunday, May 11th, 2008

Take all I have written heretofore with a grain of salt. Now I’ll tell you what I really want you to believe. This is my verbal ploy to show you that I have examined all sides of the issue, whether or not I actually have done so, and introduce my real feeling at the tail end, using the obnoxiously vogue and increasingly trite lead-in “that said.”

Class, the subject of my rant today was going to be “that said.” The subject phrase’s overuse has been getting on my nerves for perhaps ten years. Through this poultry platform, I have previously written about vogue phrases such as “it is what it is,” “it is all good,” and “not a problem,” but those were colloquialisms, while “that said” has found its way into stilted journalistic prose and into the annoying inscriptions of those who would emulate the stilted journalists—even bloggers. :)

“That said” has been kicking around for some time now, coming from the same clowns who gave us the non-epidemiological meaning (or vague lack of same) of the term “tipping point.” While the latter phrase might be used metaphorically to colorfully illustrate a point, the only use of “that said” is to flag a terminal thought as overridingly valid, essentially negating the verbal vacillation leading up to it. Real words such as “however” and “nevertheless” are being replaced by this abomination and your Turkey doesn’t like it! So, yes, that was what I was going to write about today.

That said, in doing research about “that said,” I came across a New York Times piece written almost six years ago by the great William Safire that covers the subject more thoroughly, more humorously, and more conclusively than this Pretend-O-Turkey could ever hope to. If you are as interested in the evolution of our language as I am and you lament the overuse of these vogue constructs as much as this irascible old Turkey, you must read Safire’s article.

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Another Catchphrase to Pick On

Thursday, November 1st, 2007

Former Steelers head coach Bill Cowher used to use it all the time delivering non-responses to questions during his press conferences. It seems to have caught on with players, too, when they don’t want to say something. This one has been growing in popularity over the past several years and I absolutely love it when lemmings emulate each other jumping off the verbal cliff with meaningless vogue expressions like,

“It is what it is.”

The etiology of this vacuous, yet pre-emptive, sentence is uncertain. One conjecture is that it is a mutation of Popeye’s self-affirmation, “I am what I am and that’s all what I am.” The transmogrification to the third person singular neuter probably took place in the late 20th Century, in conjunction with the general sanitization of the language at the behest of the political correctness movement. However, not much is known about when or why the conjunctive phrase “that’s all what I am” vanished from the inane construct. It does seem somewhat redundant to this Turkey. This one is almost, but not quite, as trite as another of my all-time favorites: “It is all good.”

In context, it works something like the following:

Reporter: You threw six interceptions in today’s 77-0 loss. What can you carry forward from this experience?
Player: I could say a lot of things, but it is what it is.

I much prefer the direct approach to saying nothing. Inject a little humor, perhaps. For example, I witnessed the following exchange between a reporter and Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach John McKay back in the 1970s, after a tough loss to the Detroit Lions.

Reporter: Coach, can you find anything positive in today’s loss?
McKay: Yes. It’ll be a lot easier to find a good parking space for next week’s game with Green Bay.

Why do I waste my time writing about this crap? I don’t know. It is what it is.

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