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The wild and reckless use of the word “miracles” in modern journalism raises my hackles. I hear it all the time. The operation was successful. A miracle! One of the miners survived the mine collapse. A miracle! A beautiful sunny day after a lot of rain. A miracle! Modern journalistic usage (and popular parlance) seem to have redefined miracle as “Anything that happened that we had previously convinced ourselves was unlikely to happen.” © 2008 Edward F. Gumnick I ran across the following quotation in May, and it’s been on my mind ever since. How much work (or play) will it take to live up to this standard?
—James Michener
A client raised my hackles recently by asking me to redesign a brochure with “more of a marketing appeal.” She presented an example—a mockup of a brochure cover with a huge photo that had nothing to do with the content and a few sparse blocks of words conveying little real information. The meager text referred to “all new world-class courses” that would offer “everything you need” to meet deadlines and budgets and would give you business analysis skills to “ensure flawless execution.” It sounded like unsustainable hyperbole to me—empty, meaningless phrases—but the client’s reaction to the piece was, “This is what I mean about a fresh sexy look. If you read each category you see the language of marketing coming through.” To anyone who’s been reading this blog, my apologies for the long lapse since the last posting. In mid-April, I made the decision to sell my house, and I’ve been working like a madman ever since to move and get the house ready to go on the market. Please stay tuned! I’ll have much to say when this project is over. February 6, 2006 Silly human constructs in which I have either lost my faith or never believed at all:
[Note: Sooner or later I figure that someone is going to ask me what “Incompleat Iconoclast” is supposed to mean, so I thought I should start working on an answer. This is a work in progress.] I was brought up in two faith traditions: Roman Catholicism and the Scientific Method. My parents are devout—if liberal—Catholics who raised my siblings and me in the beliefs and rituals of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. They are also intelligent people—brilliant, I would even say—who taught me that reason is the most powerful tool I possess. I tried to fit in as a Catholic for a lot of years. There was a lot I didn’t understand, but I tried to buy into the justification of “mystery.” I tried to accept that there were truths that couldn’t be apprehended by way of reason. …more [None of the writing projects I’ve been working on lately are in good enough shape yet to go on the blog, so I thought I’d post something I wrote a while back (January 25, 2006) in the interest of having something fresh for anyone who might be keeping an eye on the site. This piece has been well received by most of the writers with whom I’ve shared it.]
A few other sites to satisfy your curiosity about me (if you have any):
© 2007 Edward F. Gumnick I’ve changed the settings for the blog so that you no longer have to be a registered user to comment on articles. I don’t know if that requirement was holding anyone back, but it seemed to be an unnecessary restriction. You don’t have to answer it every time it rings. A lot of my friends and acquaintances appear to be unaware of this fact, so I thought I would bring it to everyone’s attention here. © 2007 Edward F. Gumnick |
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