Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1977-1989 | View Entire Issue (May 13, 1981)
FRANKLY SPEAKING „by phil frani communique" A guide-nouveau speak for those bewildered By R.W. Greene Of The Print Edwin Newman still gigs for NBC News, although the last thing we saw him doing was the mid-morning news for the “David Letterman Show,” where he occasionally suc cumbed to snickers while par rying Letterman’s feeble wit and watching the show go down the tube, so to speak. Newman made a name for himself, however, with two best-selling diatribes against what he saw as the desecration of the English language. In “A Civil Tongue” and “Strictly Speaking,” he poured out ex amples of jargon, obfuscation and bullshit, and became a minor-league celebrity himself, and made a lot of money. Most of us realize, of course, that Newman.is yelling up a rainspout packed with leaves. Most of us grew up hearing “maximizing the number of students, of “free pupie’s” and most don't notice; language seems passe’ com pared to the hurly-burly of the videocassetterecorder world? Tom Peterson, after all,~cuts a more passionate, if offensive, figure than Edwin Newman. Still, new idioms can come crawling out of the basement into your own speech with bewildering speed, leaving you wondering how you just said “all-right” (with that curious maniacal lilt at the end of it) more times in the last hour than you said “and.” We present two of what we have found to be the most trend-setting forms of speech. “I Went...” This is a brash young sapling in the forest of the English language, but which bums like much deader wood. “I went...” has replaced all kinds of verbs like “said,” “replied,” “argued,” “spat,” “told him he was full of it,” and so on. You “can hear vast monologues in this style, thus: ■ “so, anyway, we were at this party, and I saw her and I went wow. And she goes, like, hey. So I go over and she goes do I want to check out the coats in the bedroom, and I go wow.” _ “I went...”, however, can have infinite variations to it, by using the ubiquitous Onomatoeblam. This handy lit tle de vide, which we think comes from watching 10,000 Saturday morning cartoons, can be inserted easily in place of any adjective or adverb with stunning effects, e.g.: “So I saw the little saucer coming out of the left side and I went blam. and then another sucker comes out the right side and I go thwack, but then I can’t turn in time, and rock hits me, and blngghh, and I lost.” Or, sometimes used to describe the undescribable pas sions: / “I tried to tell her that it just wasn’t« working out and she goes an hh, and I look at her and go unnhh, so anyway we’re gonna do it Saturday. Br ing some Cuervo or something.” Or feelings of utter frustra tion: —Editor: “I tried to tell him that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about but he just went nngghh.” —Writer: “He tried to tell me I was full of it and I just went nngghh.” —Another Editor: “I listened to those guys arguing and just went nngghh.” —Another Writer:“NNG- GHH.” “You are...I am...” This syndrome, though far from unusual, is a far subtler shade of beast. It is not so much grammatical as spiritual: staff THE PRINT, a member of the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association, aims to be a fair and impartial journalistic medium covering the campus community as thoroughly as possible. Opi nions expressed in THE PRINT do not necessarily reflect those of the College administration, faculty, Associated Student Govern ment or other staff members of THE PRINT. office: Trailer B; telephone: 657-8400, ext. 309 or 310 editor: Thomas A. Rhodes news editor: J. Dana Haynes; arts editor: Amy DeVour; sports editor: Rick Obritschkewitsch photo editor: Duffy Coffman political affairs: David Hayden staff writers: Linda Cabrera, R. W. Greene Tina Riggs, Sandi Langman Tom Jeffries, Mike Rose, Susy Ryan, Wanda Percival, Tracy Teigland staff photographers: Ramona Isackson, Sue Hanneman, Karen Marshall typesetter: Kathy Walmsley; graphics: Lynn Griffith cartoonist: J. Dana Haynes adviser: Suzie Boss Page 2 —No. 1:. “So anyway, I’m moving this summer.” ^No. 2: “Yeah, I had an aunt once that moved.” You see how it works. Peo ple who talk in “you are...I am...” are convinced that everything you say is about them. It is impossible to per suade them otherwise; if you try, they stand around looking at you with- hostile, bovine gazes. But the cerebral leaps sometimes approach the sublime: —No. 1: “I hear Reagan’s a junkie.” —No. 2: “Let me tell you about this Columbo I bought once...” ûlELL, T SA<¿ WHBM W MAME TO •JCM4P start the D ean of swceMTó EACH AURMING, ITS TMAE 7Ö GET A ...... MBW DEAÑ ..... ................................... weTI ® COLLEGE MEDIA SERVICES box 4244 Berkeley. CA. 94704 Like wow! An editorial for the mellow People are really weird, Sometimes the switches can man. Like, I don’t really dig bring you to the point of pulling why everyone is having vocal a knife. You can go into a long orgasms over so many things. spiel about how you’re flunking Things like Scientific Crea algebra, and they will nod their tionism, man. I can see what all heads, say humph in sym the brouhaha is about, but like pathy, and turn around and why is everybody shouting at the top of their lungs, man? say: “Yeah, I know. Of course, They’re nothing but two when I got my four-point, I theories, yet they’ve been didn’t have the slightest trouble taken to court, and all those things. Everyone is running with the quadratic formula.” around screaming like pom As hard as all this may be to pous fools saying that they’re master, we urge dedication and only one’s right. practice. You may be pleasant Like what’s the sweat, man? ly surprised: —No. 1: “Do you think What’s wrong with just waiting they’ll sell me a half-bowl of until the experts come to an agreeable theory as to how the spaghetti?” —No. 2: “Hey, my room world was created/evolved? mate just got back from LA and Until then like, we could say to we’re having a coke orgy. the students, “Like, we’re here man, when we come up with Wanna come?” something, we’ll tell you hokay man?” That’d be cool man. I know it’s spring, man. But like that’s no excuse to scream I know romance is in on thoughts, or at least in mine man. Like with creation, th good guys eventually become! higher form of beings, y know? With evolution, man is going to evolve into a higher more mellow being, too. & what’s the sweat, man? I guess tonight they’re havini some sort of debate about al this stuff. Like, why a debate, man? Why can’t they have a rap session like the ones we have in the lounge? We have fun in the lounge because so meone doesn’t always have to be right or wrong. Like it’s all relative anyway, man. feedback Denny Smith cares not program, then they are entitled to adequate safety re quirements. It will be interesting to see To The Editor: If you are concerned about Smith’s response to requests nuclear power plant safety then from the Nuclear Regulatory you must be concerned about Commission Chairman Joseph the actions of Congressman Hendrie to allow nuclear plant operation licenses prior to Denny Smith. The Gannett News Service public hearings. Government reported on April 10th that needs to hear more, not less, Smith is pressing for immediate from the people. Many voters supported licensing of 12 nuclear plants prior to adequate review by the Smith because they felt he Nuclear Regulatory Commis would listen to them. Now, we sion of safety problems brought see Mr. Smith took a ‘deaf-ear’ to light by Pennsylvania’s to Washington D.C. Three Mile Island nuclear acci Sincerely, Representatives dent. In 1980, Oregon voters ex Bill Bradbury pressed their concern over Margie Hendriksen dangerous wastes produced by Wally Priestly nuclear plants. If citizens are going to be forced to live close to nuclear plants and risk their property To The Editor: and the financial integrity of After reading R. W. their local utilities by par ticipating in the federal nuclear Greene’s article (“ASG Wastes Johnson bad? I’ll argue that money on Speaker” April 29), I couldn’t help wondering i maybe there were two different Kerry Johnsons. The Kern Johnson that I listened to was extremely helpful, especially with his informative talk on hid den communications. He not only spoke about how often! hidden communication is used, but he also explained how it could be applied to work and school. If R. W. Greene didn’t learn anything from Mr. Johnson's! speech, then I’m sorry. Peri sonally, I would like to head more lectures on hidden com-! munication. Mr. Johnson clearly wasn’t here just to sei his cassette tape series. I can remember Mr. Johnson recom mending other books that he! had found to be enlightening.! Sincerely, Paul Nastari Student Clackamas Community College
