Coup de grace?

8 comments May 14th, 2008

 

Former Democratic presidential aspirant John Edwards ENDORSED Barack Obama in Grand Rapids, Mich., late this afternoon in a news event that was beautifully orchestrated from a standpoint of tactical politics.

The endorsement speech by Edwards came just as the Eastern and Central feeds of the network newscasts took to the air and had the effect of crowding and deflating the story of Hillary Clinton’s big victory in yesterday’s West Virginia primary.

Clinton did interviews, live and taped, with all the network anchors this afternoon, and her camp expected to get a lot of TV time for their rhetoric about her perserverance. But the Edwards endorsement stole much of the spotlight from Hillary and shifted the aura of momentum to Obama.

If a big bunch of super delegates follow Edwards’ lead and come out for Obama over the next few days, which seems possible, Clinton will be out the door for all practical purposes.

The you-guysing of America

13 comments May 14th, 2008

 

This doesn’t have anything to do with politics, but so what?

My friend and fellow RRStar blogger Wally Haas vents a bit HERE about the inappropriate familiarity with which people at some businesses address their customers.

Which brings to mind this rant I wrote last year on another blog:

I was in a Rockford restaurant the other day — an otherwise pretty good eatery — where our server set what seemed to me to be a new world record for use of the term “you guys” while dealing with the six diners at our table.

It was awesome. For an hour or so, in utterance after utterance, never once did this young lady refer to the six of us as simply “you” (as in “Would you like to have drinks before dinner?”) No, it was strictly “you guys” this and “you guys” that.

Of course, we’ve all become accustomed to the almost ubiquitous use of this term among wait staffers in restaurants — even when the customers are elderly women (in which cases it’s especially incongruous). But familiarity with the offense has not diminished my annoyance at hearing it.

I sometimes want to tell the offender: “You sound like an idiot. We’re your customers and your elders. Don’t address us as if we’re your imbecile friends discussing some matter of little real consequence on ‘American Idol.’”

But I don’t say that. I just sadly resign myself to the likelihood that this verbal rudeness will remain a blight on American service industries and other parts of our culture for the rest of my life. It’s even evidenced at times in business meetings, where the user of it runs the risk of diminished stature.

Oh, there’ll always be isolated exceptions. Some restaurants admonish their waiters to avoid “you guys” — and to refrain from such atrocities as “I’m Derek, and I’ll be your server tonight” (as if I care what his name is or don’t know why he’s standing there with a pen and order pad), or kneeling at the table to talk with the patrons (which is appallingly discourteous), or asking every 90 seconds if everything is all right. But those places are rare, indeed.

The cause is lost, my friends. According to linguist George Jochnowitz, “the you-guysing of America,” as he calls it, is a fait accompli. All we can do now is warn our children against it and hope that they’ll see the value of our advice. Fat chance.