The Curmudgeonly Professor has been derelict, indeed, in discussing principles of Curmudgeonliness and in identifying those aspects of daily life that contribute to this specialized skill. However, he has been busy taking and editing photos of flowers, and it is difficult, to say the least, to think rotten thoughts, enumerate things to be angry about, and curse the vicissitudes of life while looking at photos of petunias, wildflowers, daisies, sunflowers, and even ducks. I have taken so many pictures of the gang of ducks in the duck ponds that I practically know at least a half dozen of them by name.
However, I assume that my blog will be criticized for a false and misleading aura if I do not revert to divesting myself of whatever irritations I am currently experiencing. So here is a list:
- In last night's broadcast on the MTN TV channel of the Utah-Utah State game, it took about five minutes for one of the sportscasters to come forth with one of the most egregious cliches in sportscasting lingo, namely, "I'll tell you what." What, exactly, is what?
- And then, the other sportscaster, Todd Christensen of former BYU and NFL fame, came forth with the word "cognizant." Really? Todd, of course, loves big words and has a huge vocabulary, but "cognizant" during a football game? I have revised the word "cognizant" to "cogniziant", adding an extra "i" in there. As in "I was not cogniziant of that, but I'll tell you what." I have also taught all my grandkids to use the word cogniziant, which they dutifully do, having corrupted their vocabulary and spelling habits in numerous ways.
- Both sportscasters were so proud and enamored of their ability to fetch Urban Meyer, late of the U of Utah and now in the big, big time, on the phone, they neglected to tell us what the heck was going on in the football game, leaving us hanging and never explaining a penalty.
- The Costco eyeglasses lady who helped my wife for a couple of minutes, then walked off and left her and ignored her, when my wife was ready to order a new pair of glasses.
- The dog guy who has run his two big dogs unleashed for at least three years on the Jordan River Trail, and never has been nabbed by the Animal Control folks, formerly known as Dog Catchers, but of course, now must contend with skunks, snakes, bears, deer, moose, cats, and gerbils. Not to mention jerks.
- Twitter, which has no filter for objectionable content like many other websites has, and where I must delete and block a half dozen Twitters a day that look like handouts on the Las Vegas Strip.
- Conan. How long?
In the interests of keeping this blog post relatively succinct, I will not elaborate further today. But tomorrow will bring a whole host of other irritations, so come back and stay up to date.
