Yesterday I heard a national financial news reporter repeat the phrase several times until it perked my interest. The point was that investors will want to know more about online-review service Yelp Inc., which plans a $100-million IPO (initial public offering) (per WSJ online), before they risk their money buying shares of stock -- (like I'm "gonna wanna know" if any GOP candidate can defeat Pres. Obama in the election.) I'm also "gonna wanna know" (pause for a breath ...) what are the American people and their elected representatives who are working hard at playing politics … thinking (or failing to think)?!!
As I read today’s Standard-Examiner front-page headline "Aubree Jo's Law stalls", I couldn’t wait (and didn’t want to dwell on another non-fast-food topic) to combine it with the above, which is related in a minor (no pun intended) way. As reported fairly by Loretta Park, the bill which passed the Utah House unanimously “on Feb. 14, states that courts cannot discriminate in a custody dispute based on gender, race, ethnicity or religion.” A “concern came out of the blue” (I wouldn’t use that figure of speech in this case), so they are working on a nice compromise. “California has a similar bill, … but has expanded the word gender …” It appears the Utah Senate must either delete the word from the bill, or legally define the word to be more inclusive, and avoid a future problem.
My 1998 Merriam-Webster Dictionary has two definitions of gender: 1. any of two or more divisions within a grammatical class that determine agreement with and selection of other words or grammatical forms. [The other appears to be, but really isn’t simpler:] 2. sex.
Maybe the M-W editorial committee saw the writing on the wall 15 years ago, and decided not to expand that second definition, recognizing our changing culture. (I’m almost afraid to look at the 2012 edition to see how “progressive” it is.) I’m thinking we will eventually have three sets of definitions to cover the English language: traditional, legal, and this-is-life-now (the-only-constant-is-change) set. I wrote about language change 11/30/11, as I see it happening every day.
Enough of that heavy fare -- let’s lighten up!
