Lexicon And On

We watched David Letterman tonight, as we do sometimes because we work late, and dopey stuff helps us relax.

(You will see that we keep late hours sometimes if you notice the time of this posting.)

Anyhow, Mr. Letterman was interviewing a snow-boarding dude. (We assume most guys such as this, who have long hair and snow-board for a living, are dudes.)

In the course of the conversation, Letterman alluded to their differing life experiences, as reflected in their language.

"You know, I feel like I'm missing something," Letterman said about his life: "I'm 62 years old, and I've never been 'stoked'."

Neither have we. We don't even think we were even ever "psyched," although we remember when this was common.

A similar phenomenon, which we have noted here before, is that we have never found much to be "awesome," at least that we would talk about, rather than ponder; but people today do, pretty frequently.

Of course, it is all a matter of lexicon, which delights us, personally. We wonder, as "psyched" has turned to "stoked," what's next in line. "Awesome" has, in our memory, lasted a real long time, and we wonder if it will go on. It seems to have legs. And when did that expression start? And, stop?

We bid you goodnight now, as we hit the hay; crash; and, our personal lexicon favorite, geeze.

Steve Burke
for Ithaca NY Blog