From Common Dreams
By Johnny Boyd

America has been subjected to more than our fair share of new words in the last few years. Stephen Colbert¹s new word “truthiness” has made waves mainly because he¹s been cannon-balling the kiddie pool to get credit from the American Dialect Society for coining it. Truthiness, according to Colbert, is a devotion to information that you wish were true even if it¹s not ­­ like an evening of viewing Faux News.

My Webster¹s (copyright 1970) doesn¹t mention it as a word. Moreover, while writing this column Microsoft Word redlined it as misspelled. Of course, Microsoft Word is as stupid as Stephen Colbert¹s show which, admittedly, I¹m addicted to. Colbert¹s contribution to the American lexicon might someday prove as popular as “brokeback,” but it won¹t win any Oscars. Heck, he can¹t even get credit from the ADS.

I Googled “truthiness” and found 1,510,000 hits for it. Google is another word no one had heard of just a few years back and for good reason. Barney Google and Snuffy Smith weren¹t that funny and were difficult to relate to unless you¹re from Arkansas.

New words are fun. Old words are better, especially with new meanings. Here are a few.

“Blacklist” as in George W. Bush shouldn¹t appear anywhere that the guest register includes a list of black people. Especially black people whose lives have been devoted to civil rights and improving the state of the world they live in. Actually, he shouldn¹t appear anyplace where the guests aren¹t vetted as lobotomized cheerleaders.

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