I'll admit, I never heard of "mama grizzlies" until now.

I could man up and tell you that Lake Superior State University has no right to ban words. But why refudiate a school's ability to do anything? Sure, Lake Superior State University lacks any wow factor that makes it appealing on a national stage. It's a small school in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. So small that it makes Fitchburg State University look epic in size. But Lake State's back story is that it makes a name for itself by creating a yearly list of words and phrases it wants to ban from the American vernacular. The American people are a stubborn creature, which explains the need for Lake State to take these measures.

I'm just sayin' that Americans beat words and phrases into the ground until they have a collective "a-ha!" moment that lets them know there's only one way to describe the way we talk: fail.

We can blame social media for this. If you facebook various profiles on any social networking site, you'll notice ubiquitous catchphrases, to the extent that it seems language goes viral sometimes. And it's not just between BFFs either. Strangers thousands of miles apart speak the same way, too. You can google random words and phrases and find Justin Bieber's fan clubs using the same keywords as a mama grizzlies' website.

You won't find me talking this way though. I choose to live life to the fullest--and that means never following a crowd.



Psssst: In case you're not a sharp one, all the bold words are this year's banned words and phrases. Because I'm cute like that.

The folks in Fargo are an indecisive bunch.

The Marist Polling Institute (proposed slogan: "For when Gallup is too classy...") recently came up with a poll of the most annoying phrases in conversation. (You can read it...here.) Their results say nothing is more annoying than "whatever." Presumably this is said with a snap of the fingers, in a Valley Girl accent, circa 1993.

The most annoying phrases in order:

1.) Whatever - 47%
2.) You know - 25%
3.) It is what it is - 11%
4.) Anyway - 7%
5.) At the end of the day - 2%

How does "like" slip through the cracks of this poll? If anyone has spent more than 20 minutes in a college classroom they'd know an orgy of similes are being unleashed every two seconds--most of the time with the speaker completely unaware. The Marist Polling Institute is run through Marist College. They should know this better than anyone else.

It gets more interesting when you look at Marist's spreadsheet breaking down the results by region, race, age, and education. (Oh, yeah. We love the spreadsheets here.) Apparently 12% of Midwesterners have no opinion on annoying phrases. Really now? Is it so hard to come up with some quirk of language that grates the nerves that 12% of an entire populated region just shrugs their shoulders?

I'll help the good Midwestern folk out with my own suggestion. How about "you betcha!"? Long before Alaskan political candidates used it, people in the Midwest had a stranglehold on verbal gambling. They bet on everything. You tell a Midwesterner it's cold outside, and they reply, "Ohhh, it is! You betcha!" You tell a Midwesterner your scrambled eggs taste great, and they reply, "You betcha! Chickens do lay tasty eggs!" They say it so often that it's surprising a game of Three-card Monte doesn't break out more often around them.

Anyway, whatever. At the end of the day it is what it is.