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"Bob Ingraham" wrote in message ... From: Organization: Road Runner Newsgroups: rec.collecting.stamps.discuss Date: Sun, 21 Sep 2003 13:30:41 GMT Subject: Early football heroes stamps Heroes... Not! "Early Footbal Stars"... better title. I hate this hero this and hero that. The word is misused to make a person who is a genuine hero dimished and neglible. I bet Bob Ingram would second that. Dave (not a hero either) Amen! Heroes save lives or save the day at great personal risk, sometimes losing their own lives in the process. We misuse a great many words these days. Most "tragedies" that we hear about on the evening news are not tragedies, but misfortunes. If you want to know to understand tragedy, read Shakespeare. Even worse are the "minor incidents" that are reported; what is not mentioned is that the "minor incidents" are sometimes savage assaults which left victims bleeding and semi-conscious on the ground. We are often told of "shocking" neighborhood crime. Shock generally requires medical or psychological intervention, and results from severe psychological and/or physical trauma. A purse snatching might well shock the elderly owner of the purse, and perhaps witnesses, but the news reader? Hardly. Here in British Columbia this summer, TV talkingweatherheads used the words "beautiful day" to describe virtually every hot day without clouds. Of course the lack of clouds meant no rain, for a record number of weeks, and resulted in severe water restrictions and the worst forest fires in history. I don't think those days were very "beautiful" to the hundreds of families who lost their homes. And then there are "landslide" political victories in which the winning party garners .5% more votes than the losers, or even fewer popular votes. I sometimes wonder what words the talking heads are going to use when news truly is shocking, when something is actually beautiful, when something really is tragic. Bob -- A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance, and to turn around three times before lying down. --Robert Benchley -- Totally agree! Hyperbole rules on TV today (was there ever a time when it didn't?). I usually managed to avoid it when I was news director at a local radio station. My solution was to let the newsmakers be the ones to use hyperbole. Problem is, "beautiful," "landslide," "shocking," and the like are all so subjective, I'm not sure they are ever totally quantifiable. Maybe it's a carryover from advertising where everything has to be bigger and better. Likewise, it's just not news unless shouting, screaming adjectives modify the event. Yes it is a sad state of affairs. Now let me tell you about the crisis in stamp collecting, which is directly tied to the horrible overabundance of crass issues being foisted upon the public by the greedy USPS thanks to the co-conspirators at the CSAC.......... Mike |
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