Objectionable Mot Du Jour
Bizarre.
It’s a word you see in news stories, headlines and sub-headlines almost every day: “Bizarre suicide plot”, “Bizarre love triangle” (which probably led to the suicide plot), “Bizarre turn of events”. You get my drift.
It’s turned into a bit of a cliché, this “bizarre” word. So, with that in mind, I make this small request: Try to eliminate “bizarre” from your lexicon, or at least limit your use. If you’re a news writer, you shouldn’t tell me if something is bizarre. That’s up to me to decide. It’s about as unnecessary as telling me that something is shocking. DON’T TELL ME HOW TO FEEL OR WHAT I SHOULD THINK. Just tell me the story, and let me figure it out for myself. In the end, I might think it odd, I might think it tragic, or I might just think it silly. But it should be my choice, not yours.
Tomorrow: Are they “issues”, or “problems”?
