Washington's newest verb: 'Salahi' - MICHAEL FALCONE | POLITICO CLICK
Washington's newest verb: 'Salahi' - MICHAEL FALCONE POLITICO CLICK

While reading this today, we got to thinking about how words entered our lexicon.

Comes against a backdrop of many interesting (and seemingly disparate) recent events. Does anyone doubt there will someday be a term coined for “… pulling a Tiger…”? Also noted that CBS announced that the network was bagging the soap opera production industry as they cancelled the epitome of daytime dramas “As the World Turns” after 70-some years.

Those of us pre- and post-Boomers are acquainted with the reference “as the world turns ...” (and the endless permeations of that phrase) meant to describe something that has devolved into deep drama, marital infidelity, diva or playboy shenanigans, or similar other tabloid escapades.

Leading me to wonder, will Gen Xers, Millennials, etc., know what “as the ____ turns” means if they hear it in the future? Will they blindly use it without knowing from whence it came? Will they use it at all? To test this theory, we asked our twenty-something* receptionist if she was familiar with the term and/or what it meant; she replied that she wasn’t but didn’t watch soaps all that much.

(*There’s another. Will these youngsters realize this phrase was enshrined in today’s parlance by that 1980s TV show, “Thirty-something*” which actually did include the asterisk in the title.)

Something we as communicators need to keep in mind as we craft messages for audiences younger than us in the years to come. Better run it by the receptionist.
- posted by MediaObserver @ 9:58 AM