My Continued Rebellion
In my last blog entry, I talked about launching a campaign to eradicate that annoying phrase: “go ahead and.” Now I must expand my rebellion against another new and pointless quirk of the English language. I was in my kitchen this morning, brewing coffee from a “pre-measured” pouch. I paused to think: What is the difference between measured and pre-measured? And then I made a sandwich out of “pre-sliced” cheese. What on earth comes before slicing? I wanted to bake some french fries to go with the sandwich, and the recipe called for “pre-heating” the oven. Isn’t that just heating the oven?
After lunch, I checked my email. A friend wrote that she is in the “pre-planning” stage of her wedding. What comes before the planning? Isn’t pre-planning the same as planning? And now that I think of it, when I am pre-programming my VCR, am I not simply programming it? I was reading the Los Angeles Times, and a headline on the front page read: “Pre-detecting Terror.” How do you “pre-detect” something? When you notice something, then you’ve detected it, right? Pre-detecting means you aren’t aware of it yet, so aren’t we all currently in a state of pre-detection? How the heck does adding “pre” to a word improve it, anyway, and why do we have to do it? Maybe it’s a way of making us control-freaks feel like we’re on top of things. By being so prepared, we are doing things before we are doing things. I look at my desk now and wonder if I am currently “pre-writing” a novel. Maybe I am also “pre-thinking” about what I am going to cook for dinner tonight. Perhaps I should “pre-clean” the cat box? Even better: I should “go ahead and pre-clean” the cat box. I love the English language!
