Words on words

I spent a lot of yesterday researching ideas. I came across a couple that I thought people here might enjoy. One, on AARP's magazine site, was about the [url=http://www.aarpmagazine.org/lifestyle/Articles/the_way_we_word.html]loss of old time phrases[/url]. It was written from a very American perspective, I thought, but could strangely identify with some of them. Probably the effect of those innumerable Nancy, and Trixie Beldens and Rusty Rustons of the footpath shops I frequented in my childhood.

Another was by an Australian bemoaning [url=http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/02/29/1077989431576.html?oneclick=true]officialese[/url] in schools. Sadly enough, this is the way most academic writing is still done - bloated words, convoluted paragraphs. I'll admit it, I kinda enjoy the feel of those long words which no one uses. As one of my professors once declared with relation to films, there's more [i]cache[/i] when we think we're the select few who've managed to labor through the whole thing, and emerged with a semi-understanding of what is being said.

In a way I think we love our words to death.

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Thanks everyone for your kind notes yesterday. Very much appreciated. It's not a "loss" loss, as mdhis asked, but more like a pervading sadness for the way we once were, something I can't shake off. And a dread for the time when I might have to go through a similar situation. My own death does not worry me, I'm worried about how death of others might affect me.