OMG, OED ♥’s LOL.

FYI...

For the March 2011 release of OED Online, we have selected for publication a number of noteworthy initialisms—abbreviations consisting of the initial letters of a name or expression. Some of these—such as OMG [OMG int. (and n.) and adj.]: ‘Oh my God’ (or sometimes ‘gosh’, ‘goodness’, etc.) and LOL [LOL int. and n./2]: ‘laughing out loud’—are strongly associated with the language of electronic communications (email, texting, social networks, blogs, and so on). They join other entries of this sort: IMHO (‘in my humble opinion’) [IMHO at I n./1], TMI (‘too much information’) [TMI at T n.], and BFF (‘best friends forever’) [BFF at B n.], among others.

[ ... ]

The new sense added to heart v. in this update may be the first English usage to develop via the medium of T-shirts and bumper-stickers. It originated as a humorous reference to logos featuring a picture of a heart as a symbol for the verb love, like that of the famous ‘I ♥ NY’ tourism campaign. Our earliest quote for this use, from 1984, uses the verb in ‘I heart my dog’s head’, a jokey play on bumper stickers featuring a heart and a picture of the face of a particular breed of dog (expressing a person’s enthusiasm for, say, shih-tzus) which itself became a popular bumper sticker. From these beginnings, heart v. has gone on to live an existence in more traditional genres of literature as a colloquial synonym for ‘to love’.

WTF?

Whether you consider this a further debasement of the language or a much appreciated academic acceptance of changing conventions is a matter of personal choice, of course. In my heart of heart, I lean toward the first conclusion but then I keep reminding myself that I pledged long ago not to be one of those old men who bitched about the way it used to be and refuse to be irate or contrarian.

I will say that the Twitter-ization of communication does strike me as evidence of the increasing disintegration of levels of meaning, nuance and depth in human interaction and a condescension to a culture which prizes only the immediate and ignores, if not denies, history. The shining lights of the generation about to take over the world, for all their extraordinary accomplishments in many areas, appear to these tired old eyes to manifest brilliance without intellect.

And that is no LOL matter.

The truth is out there.

If the story about thousands of dead birds falling from the skies over Arkansas this weekend after "hitting something" unknown and unseen doesn't conjure up visions of alien invasion or, at the very least, infiltration, then I feel sorry for you for your lack of imagination. And fun.

"God bless Willie Mays."

gWhen my first wife came out of the anesthesia following the birth of our son, those were the first words she said. I'd uttered that plea so often that it was ingrained in her memory. Willie, the greatest baseball player of all time, was, and is, my favorite baseball player ever.

For that, and lots of other reasons, I should have been rooting for the San Francisco Giants to win the World Series this year and, in the end, I was. Right after the Giants had eliminated The Phillies, though, I was in no mood to to take side at all. I eventually began considering the Rangers, who have (still) never won anything, and because I still had a warm spot in my heart for Cliff Lee.

Lee proceeded to turn that ice cold with his "I didn't mind seeing them lose" comment, which was perfect reasonable from his perspective, but not something I needed to hear. So I started the Series a little ambivalent but essentially wanting the Giants to win. They proceeded to conquer my heart completely with their fantastic pitching and their git-'er-done play.

The final decider was The Decider himself. When Texas trotted out Bush 41 and Bush 43 before Game Four and offered up camera shots of mean old Babs in the stands, her eyes and expression revealing her deepest conviction as they had--the men in this family are wimps--I was all in

I wonder if they deliver?

My friend Rich Pawlak makes a hidden-away Chinese restaurant in New Jersey sound like a place where I would very happy. He says that it is one of the best of its kind in the state.

Granted, being the best of anything in New Jersey is a lot like being the best contemporary Swiss novel (there's not a lot of competition), but, on food at least, I trust his judgment.