Information Research Weblog

Tom,

Yeah I'm in agreement around that. It's like that infernal 'At the end of the day..'
to which anybody with a healthy respect for General Semantics should reply
"Which specific day did you have in mind and at which particular time is the end?"

John

John Holgate
Director of Library Services
St. George Hospital

Tel: 0293502042
email: holgatej@sesahs.nsw.gov.au



-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Wilson [mailto:t.d.wilson@sheffield.ac.uk]
Sent: Wednesday, 8 December 2004 22:08
To: irweblog.irweblog
Subject: IR-WEBLOG Short rant


Msg URL: http://www.free-conversant.com/irweblog/466
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In modern management writing flab is a defining characteristic and there is no flabbier word than "around" - lazy people use it when the can't think of the correct word and it leads to such absurdities as "based around" and "centred around". How in Gods' names (as Terry Pratchett might phrase it) can anything be "based" around something? A base is something upon which a structure of some kind is erected - if that structure was erected "around" the base it would sink into the ground! Similarly with "centred around" (or, more usually, "centered around", since the disease seems to inflict our American cousins most strongly) - if you are "around" the centre you are on the circumference, not in the middle.

End of rant :-)

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