The more I see Brian Williams pop out from behind the NBC Nightly News desk and show his true colors in interviews on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Late Night with Conan O'Brien, the more I am able to enjoy his great sense of humor, witty intellect, and dashing good looks.
A recent Gawker post pointed me in the direction of The Daily Nightly, a blog featuring the posts from the show's correspondents, most prominently in my mind, Mr. Williams, and I've been hooked ever since. I quickly added it to my Google Reader feed (pretty much the best way for me to stay as crazy informed as I like to when it comes to news sources), and watching it closely is already paying off. Today I caught this gem:
"I'm trying to concentrate on work despite the fact that its beautiful outside, and I have Chris Rock tickets for later this week. We hope you can join us for tonight's broadcast." (Full story available here.)
I'm dying! Brian Williams distracted at work is one thing, but Brian Williams distracted at work because of Chris Rock tickets is a whole other animal.
Now that I've been working at a desk job for 10 months, I've come up with a list of phrases/words/business jargon that I want to completely eliminate from my vocabulary. They just sound so unoriginal, and it makes me feel like my brain cells and writing skills are slowly wasting away in my body.
Verbal Sh*tlist - Professional:
Best practices - Probably the number one offender in my mind. Why can't you just say "Best way to..."
Ramp up - I told my dad I never wanted to work for a company that uses "ramp up" regularly. I've only heard it here once, could be worse, I guess.
Circle back - "Follow up" is starting to get to me too, but I think it's just because I use it a lot, I don't think it's necessarily a buzzword. Although, if you have any alterntives, that would be awesome as well.
In the loop - What about "update?" Is that so hard?
Repurpose - "tailor" or "recycle," please.
And while I'm on the subject of a vocabulary makeover, two things. First, I bought a GRE study book. I figure if I take the test, there's no reason for me to avoid going to grad school. But it also reminded me that I need to keep beefing up my vocabulary. And second, while I'm overhauling my language, I will also apply that to my personal life, minimizing (or hopefully striking out) the words like, super, and totally. My folks didn't pay for college to hear me talk like a high school sophomore.
