This Spring, when it seems that so many good things are
coming to an end, it pains us deeply here at the Terran Headquarters for Intergalactic
and WORD Peace to confirm that those guys in white coats and N95 masks have
taken Mr. WORD away again.
The completely bogus court order that “Nick,” the largest
knuckle-dragger, waved in our faces while his mouth-breathing goons threw the
WORD’s beloved Thesarus collection and a half-completed Scrabble game out the
window, says the WORD is infectious.
“What!?” WORD declaimed, waving his own official-looking
document. “I just got tested and I’m COVID-free.”
It turns out that the WORD’s contagion is not viral, but
language- and idea-based, and no one can deny now, at the end of the WORD’s 25th
year, that it’s difficult stuff to resist.
Over those years, the WORD has staked out claim to both
high ground and low, all in the interests of exploring the role of free press
and free expression in an informed and engaged participatory democracy.
Back in 1995, when the WORD burst onto the intergalactic
stage — well, in that first journalism class back at Utah State — the daily
wisdom was designed to help students become proficient at email (can you
imagine?!), and to provide some context for the role of journalism in society.
What passed for “wisdom” in those early days is lost in
the haze of, well, haze, because the WORD didn’t go online until late 2007. The
first WORD that is preserved in our archives is from Nov. 30, 2007, and
threatens hapless journalism students in its
first online breath:
“The WORD has once again shimmied down the drainpipe at
St. Mumbles Home for the Terminally Verbose and reemerges today to launch
another horrific reign of punditry and verbiage,” it said. “(If you are one of
my students — and if you are, everyone pities you — your assignment for
tomorrow is to define and use in a sentence of 25 words or fewer both of those
words.)”
As longtime WORDsters know, it’s been all downhill since
then. So rather than belabor that sorry history, let’s focus on the here and
now.
Specifically, the WORD is not here anymore now. While the
staff was examining his documents (which turn out to be a lease agreement for a
condo-share in Wichita), Nick and his thugs hustled the WORD into the truck and
took him off to self-isolate back at St. Mumbles.
Typically, these quarantines have been salubrious to the
WORD’s health (look that one up, too, kids). Staff are permitted to visit St.
Mumbles, but we understand it’s got a lot of old professors and tired editors
and other old farts in hammocks and whatnot, conjugating and paraphrasing and
making stuff up.
During these dark days of COVID, we feel that the WORD
has been a small but rare bright spot in the day. Well, some days it’s not awful. So
we’re sorry the WORD is gone, but we’re pretty sure he’ll be back. Hope we're
all still here then.
Be well, be safe and remember to wash your damn hands!
PeezPIX
by Ted
Pease
Off Into the Sunset
Check out the May issue of Senior News: “Humboldt
Holds Its Breath.” Free everywhere.
This Classic WORD is repurposed from March 2015. Those
were the days.
FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to
2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday
morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you
to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to
ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email
address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t
necessarily endorse ’em. Don’t shoot the messenger.)
“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words
are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you
can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
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