Words and phrases not meant to be uttered within the confines of the copy parlor

So, I'm a copy editor at a local alt weekly in Sacramento.

Yup. Fancy. Be kind to any errors you may come across in this blog. Employment in this field does not imply a prerequisite infallibility. Usually just a (humbly kept under wraps, of course) sense of grammatical and intellectual superiority.

Oftentimes in my workday, given that our news is, um, alternative, strange words and phrases will come up in print. Other times, they are simply spoken in the aural vicinity of the copy desk (otherwise known as the copy parlor--we have a pretty pink antique couch). These words comprise a list, seldom obeyed and ignored in perpetuity, that myself and the assistant copy editor wish ne'er to hear or read again.

Understand, I'm not opposed to the slow adoption of Internet jargon and other lazy vernacular that has found its way into the lexicon. Not all of it, anyway--"irregardless" will never be let go by me; I don't care if it's in the damn dictionary. Language is beautiful in large part for its flexibility, and meant to evolve. There's a time, place and context for newbies, which, granted, is changing every day.

Note the rethinking of ba-dunka-dunk on the list to follow, for example. Or this: I never thought I'd find myself ever going without punctuation. And now, sometimes, I feel the open-endedness of a periodless statement can leave a sort of cliffhanger effect, full of angst and, well, listlessness. It lends a sort of depth to an otherwise banal set of words. It can be a bad thing, or it can have the potential for a really "yeah, man, totally" kind of vibe, which we all need sometimes. All in all, a fairly accurate temperature reading of the cultural climate we've found ourselves in at the moment.

I doubt that's what the tween punks taking the Twitter state of mind viral were intending, but then again, intention isn't always synonymous with interpretation, or truth, and it doesn't have to be--art history taught me that one.

I'm getting boring.

The list as it currently sits on the bulletin board:

get 'er done
pizzist
cheers
chya
air guitar
what's doin'
ba-dunka-dunk
not!
top of his/her/their game (and really, any sports analogies/metaphors)
foreverz
LOL, et al.
"deets," as in details
brah
"I'm kind of a big deal"
preggers
scerred/scurred (or any variation on "scared")
butthurt
on-the-go
back 'n' da dizzay
"sneering vocals"
"uh oh" (at deadline only)