Those Pesky Extra Little Words

As a radio announcer, I’ve spent much of the last three decades teaching myself how to be less-wordy. I’ve also gone to the point of watching out for words that really mean nothing at the time they are said.

I’ll get to this in a second — as I take the time to admit — I fail at this exercise often.

This morning, in the newsroom, we were having a discussion about “effect vs. affect,” two words I struggle with all the time. Happily, I can report — I’m not the only one in the business that displaces these two words on a regular basis.

We also talked about the word, “across.” I used to say “acrossed,” which is incorrect as there is no “-ed,” at the end of the word. I never realized this until a friend pointed it out to me and I worried over it so much that I eventually avoided using it at all.

This reminds me of the word, “nuclear,” another word I try to avoid as much as possible. A lot has been made of this word in recent years because of its mispronunciation by former President George W. Bush.

I could head down the path of a rant about how President Barack Obama says “Pock-ee-ston,” when the rest of us simply say, “Pack-ee-stan,” — but I won’t.

As for words that mean nothing when they’re said — my pet-peeve is the local weather dudes and dudette’s saying, “65 degrees outside.”

Really? I had no idea.

“So what’s the temperature inside?” I ask the TV — but my inner voice interrupts,” Somewhere between 68 and 72 degrees.”