Updated Forecast: In Excess of 8" of Snow, Plus Wind
And Now, 10-20 Inches
Federal Govt. Closed Tuesday
Snowmaggedon 1.0 in Time Lapse
Morning Roundup: After the Snowfall Edition
Good morning, D.C. So, uh ... no one wants to talk about that Caps game, right? What a rough night. What a crushing disappointment of a game seven. What a ... blergh. If you'll excuse us, we've got to go attempt to scrub off this penguin-shaped indentation from our behinds.
Reports of Violence at D.C. Schools Goes Down: That's according to the Examiner, who write that, "Serious incidents, defined as fights, abuse, assault, robbery, weapon possession, drugs or fires, fell to 1,117 between August 2008 and April 2009, according to the school system. That’s down 17 percent from 1,353 serious incidents during the same period last year." Good news, right? At least one person doesn't think so: Washington Teachers Union President George Parker says he thinks the improved numbers could actually be related to a decline in reporting of school violence, not an actual decline in incidents.
Lanier Dismantles Hostage Negotiation Unit: Citing the miniscule number of times it's called upon to work, Chief Lanier said yesterday that she plans to dismantle the Metropolitan Police Department's hostage negotiation unit, the Post reports. The eight-person squad, known as the ERT, or emergency response team, will be disbanded and each member will be moved into patrol districts. Kristopher Baumann of the police union is pissed, natch. The natural question is, doesn't this put the city at risk of mishandling a hostage or suicide situation? Turns out, Lanier's plan is to quadruple the number of negotiators on the force, they will just be doing other police work when they are not on a call. "There's no reason for them to sit around in a building waiting for a call. They had seven calls in an 18-month period," Lanier said.
Briefly Noted: Former Mayor Williams starts work at Arent Fox ... Bethesda high school students targeted by online threats ... D.C. voucher parents testify before Congress.
This Day in DCist: Last year, Fort Reno Park began its arsenic scare odyssey, and the year before that, the city stepped up its efforts at graffiti removal.
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Sommer, am I the only grammar nazi person who thinks the word, "natch" shouldn't be used, even in a blog? It sounds, oh what's the best way to put this.... retarded? Yeah, it's retarded. Just say "naturally." It's okay, it doesn't make you unhip.
It's better than "Obvi" or "Totes" in my view...
am I the only grammar nazi person who thinks the word, "natch" shouldn't be used, even in a blog?
Yep, you're the only one. Employing slang is one of the joys of writing in the English language.
Then why doesn't the next sentence begin with:
"The natch question is..." ?
I mean, you only got half the joy!!!
fucking a
"Natch" sounds like something that comes out of Jason Mewes mouth during a Kevin Smith movie, not a widely-read blog. And I don't care if it's "just a blog."
Here, here!
Though, maybe if this were a different kind of blog, it'd be ok. For instance, using "natch" might be acceptable if this were "Stacy's Shopping Blog" or "Stacy's Project Runway Blog."
Haha I kept seeing "natch" used across various blogs and never had a CLUE what the writers meant. I kept adding an "s" at the beginning of the word, and that's what it came to mean to me. Which never made sense, in context.
The slang terms that annoy me most on blogs and bulletin boards are "Word" and "awse." And I'm getting really tired of "Fail."
I don't mind "fail" at least IRL because it's an actual word and expresses very quickly and succinctly of someone's level of suck. (i.e., "You're full of fail. Please stop what you're doing and step away.")
See, it's a slippery slope. First you get people used to posting in slanguage, then you end up going all leet, with the "OMG U R FU77 O F417! 1337!" Before you know it, you're screaming in broken Esperanto to the chika at Mcdonalds who can barely speak Spanish that you wanted a McGriddle and NOT a McMuffin because the cheese makes your pants explode and she just shrugs and asks if you want fries with that.
However, "STICK IT IN HER POOPER" remains eminently apropos, regardless of the situation or context.
What's that line from Idiocracy? Here it is. Thanks IMDb.
"Unaware of what year it was, Joe wandered the streets desperate for help. But the English language had deteriorated into a hybrid of hillbilly, valleygirl, inner-city slang and various grunts. Joe was able to understand them, but when he spoke in an ordinary voice he sounded pompous and faggy to them."
End natch now.
On the comments board of a different blog the other week, I saw someone use "ferosh" instead of ferocious. I almost blew a gasket.
That would be "hear, hear," natch.
I have a policy of criticizing grammar and language only in response to the same.
good policy. grammar/language police are annoying.
"Natch" is totally fine. It is and has been widely used by most of my friends for years. By years, I mean maybe four but still.
I think it exists solely as the antithesis to using the word "naturally" because that word is only used by pompous tools.
Granted, we could just avoid all of this and use "of course."
Of course we could. Haha. I actually love using "of course" in certain contexts:
Friend of mine: "I got drunk and made some really bad decisions last night."
Me: "Of course you did."
or, alternatively:
Me: "Oh, you mean, for a change?"
You are not alone.
I forgot the absolute worst:
Squee!!!
And "jump the shark" jumped the shark years ago.
That reminds me of the ad I used to hear on the radio for a company that "provides e-commerce solutions in internet time to dotcoms."
F**K. YOU.
Using "retarded" is retarded, douchefafa.
Wasn't "natch" a popular slang term in the '20s and '30s? I suggest we also resurect "23 skidoo" and other hepcat terms. Better than using the R word, friendo.
Per the Online Etymology Dictionary, natch is a "colloquial shortening of naturally, first recorded 1945". This would suggest that it was in fact WWII slang, but just not recorded until the end of the war.
We all know that English is an adaptive, and changing language. As Sommer said, using slang is one of the greatest joys of it. If you want to be a grammar Nazi, move to France or Italy where they give a shit, and actually hold formal language preservation efforts. As for English, if you can't keep up with the ever changing vocabulary of "made-up", and chopped up words, it probably (or should I say prolly) says more about you than the vocabulary. There is no reason why natch won't become a fully immersed word in the ever changing language. Someone, someday, will be complaining about people shortening it to "Na", "Na is not a word! Use the proper term which is Natch!" (this comment was designed to include 16 grammatical eyesores, enjoy!)
Seriously...I missed Lost to watch THAT???? Effing Caps. I wanna beat Sidney Crosby into a pile of bloody goo.
Why? What did Sid do?
Nothing other than what was expected of him...he's just too good. I wanna beat him for the same reason I wanna beat the living crap out of guys like Paul Pierce or Dustin Pedroia...they're all great, they just happen to play for teams I hate.
Well, he also whined really hard about getting high-sticked by Laich.
And responded by scoring on the ensuing power play...like I said, too good.
yeah. he cried so hard that blood came out of his upper lip. Did the Pens get away with any high sticks to the face? The double minor followed Orpik getting raked across the grill too. I must have missed that amidst the thorough ass-beating of the Caps we all witnessed.
I'm pretty sure that stuff on his upper lip was just his lame attempt at facial hair, not blood.
Boo hoo hoo. Caps played absolutely terrible, there's no one to blame but themselves. They just got beat by a far more disciplined team.
You'll get no argument from me. Pens wanted it more...I'm still pissed though :)
Pittsburgh has a few very good sports teams. We have jobs.
/sour grapes
So true, but this just makes me more sad about my home town teams. Minnesota sports have no hopes for any post-season play and they don't have jobs up there (although they still probably have a leg up on Pittsburgh)
What,!? no reporting on the giant accident on 7th? Apparently, there was a huge bandwagon crash, several thousand riders thrown off and presumed dead, until around April 2010.
ha! good one
Well, we'll all be busy cheering on those awesome Nats, Redskins and Wizards.
Terds
The first thing I thought when I read "Reports of Violence at D.C. Schools Goes Down" was "That's because snitches get stitches." Good to see WTU President Parker is on the right wavelength.
Now, GIMME YOUR WALLET ELSE I CUT YOU.
First thing I thought of was, where's the follow up report that says "Reports of Attendance at D.C. Schools Goes Down."
I don't know about attendance, but enrollment is down 8% from last year.
Funny, I read the headline and though "Violence" was one of those 'new age' girl's names.
Beats Caitlyn any day of the week.
How about Violencia, kind of like the city in Spain?
Not to be one of those "New York is better than DC" types...
The NYPD hostage negotiation unit, which is reportedely the busiest in the nation, is also a part-time unit. Detectives from all parts of the city and all types of units are assigned (they actually volunteer and are screened to see if they can handle the job)to the team and are called out only when needed.
I remember reading somewhere that they average nearly one call-out per day, so if they can handle things on a part time basis, I think DC can as well.
I'm going to incorporate two comment strings to this post into one. Brace yourself.
First, your argument is premised upon the notion that NYC is BETTER than DC because NYC's hostage unit is more effective even though they are busier. Say what? I would prefer to live in a city where the hostage unit is disbanded because THEY DON'T RECEIVE ENOUGH CALLS ABOUT HOSTAGES! This should become a new marketing slogan - DC is Hostage Free!
Second, FAIL.
Dogs and Feet. I'm beginning to see a pattern here....and I like it. In other news:
Violence in DC schools. Me thinks that the kids are making fire-arms and shivs in shop class.
The hostage situations. Kill em all. No survivors. It holds up traffic.
The Caps Loss. I prefer erotica over hockey anytime.
Thank GOD I don't have to hear about the Caps again till next season - especially from people who only jumped on the bandwagon once they made the playoffs.
Wooh, no kidding. Thank Zeus for all the die-hard fans that DC has which we can count on to hold their noses up at new fans who have taken advantage of a good season to become interested in local sports. I mean, what if they actually wanted to come to a few games next year? HELL NO - the Caps cadre will make sure that any casual fan understands that there's no room for them around the rink.
No wonder the Barra Brava is so strong... they aren't a bunch of pricks like long-time Caps fans are.
While I completely agree with your sentiment... get over it. In any sport outside of football there is no reason to care about the regular season. They are just bloated efforts to make money and no one game matters that much. Come the playoffs, casual fans turn into die-hard games and non fans turn into fans because there is an actual context to the games; there is a clear goal and a set enemy. Its much more reasonable to invest your time and money under this scenario than say, the middle 5 months of a season.
And while I understand where you are coming from, west, if you are indeed a "real" fan and understand the game, there is some reason to care about the regular season.
For instance, it's actually pretty amazing that in baseball, over the course of 162 regular season games, how many teams only miss the playoffs by one game, or are even forced into a one-game playoff to make the playoffs.
While I agree that when you step back, your "no one game matters that much" argument does seem valid, I definitely disagree that in the regular season there isn't a clear goal. Your goal is to win the game; your "enemy" is your opponent.
This has nothing to do with fair-weather or bandwagon fans...just that regular season games can matter if you're truly a fan of the game itself.
And, that you're actually a fan of the game and the team, and not just watching to see championships being won.
Oh, you've all misunderstood my annoyance. I am the opposite of a die hard fan. I have NO interest in the Caps, and am sick of hearing about them. What annoys me about the "fair weather" Caps fans is that previously, I could count on these people to NOT talk about hockey - and now all the sudden it's all they talk about.
What is a "real" fan? You can't quantify that. If I or anyone else aren't considered a "real" fan b/c of not wanting/not being able to afford/not being able to commit to buying season tickets for an 82 or 180 game season or even invest the hours and hours each week to watch every game on TV then fine.
All I'm saying is that every team to ever make any sort of playoff has experienced a big spike in interest. Its unavoidable. People who gripe and say that more casual fans who have their interests piqued during the playoffs/playoff run aren't "real" fans need to get past that. God forbid your team raises more revenue and uses it to improve in the following years.
Whoops, that was supposed to be a reply.
Well now you've gone and done it.
Awwww that poor dog looks so sad and lonely! :-(