There is a story about Harry Truman showing daughter Margaret's boyfriend around the White House Rose Garden and extoling the virtues of manure as fertilizer. Margaret complained to her mother, asking for help to stop her father's use of the embarrassing word "manure".
Bess Truman replied, "I'll see what I can do, dear, but you have no idea how many years it has taken me to get your father to call it "manure".
Bess may have worked on Harry's terminology for the sake of polite company but she also influenced his precision of meaning. Green may not be as vulgar as the word manure replaces but it could use a manure equivalent for similar reasons. And it seems that lots of people agree with me.
Lake Superior State University's Banished Words
The Lake Superior State list of banished words for 2009 has just been issued and they selected fifteen finalists from 5000 submissions.
Green was number one on the list to be banished.
"Environmental buzzwords are getting the axe this year. "Green" and "going green" received the most nominations.
GREEN – The ubiquitous 'Green' and all of its variables, such as 'going green,' 'building green,' 'greening,' 'green technology,' 'green solutions' and more, drew the most attention from those who sent in nominations this year."
I've advocated for elimination of green in favor of more precision (What color is Green?). - Probably as likely as eliminiating the the vulgar alternate for manure. - Still, it's heartening to know others feel strongly, people like Ed Hardiman of Bristow, Virginia who wrote:
"If I see one more corporation declare itself "green", I'm going to start burning tires in my backyard."
Not very green of him at all. Is it?
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