Short Takes: Crapitizing the language Short Takes: Crapitizing the language (July 06, 2005)

Who suffered a blow when the Menlo Park City Council passed new home-building rules last week? Neighbors? Developers?

Actually, it was the English language.

In the June 28 meeting, supporters of the rules kept dropping the word "incentivize," as in, "This plan will incentivize single-story development."

Along with a cringing reporter, the Web site grammarhell.com decries "the annoying trend of twisting nouns into verbs," singling out this particular "verb" as an example.

The site continues: "It's garbage that begins as jargon from some bureaucrat ... (and) makes its way into the newspaper."

Oops.
86 the TLAs ASAP

Speaking of jargon, the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors recently enacted a new policy banning bureaucratic acronyms. Anyone uttering terms such as EIR, RFP, or MOU in the board chambers is to be fined $1 for the offense.

Instead, the full name is to be used so even the common folk can understand such terms as environmental impact report, request for proposals and memorandum of understanding.

So far, this delightful development does not appear to have spread to local municipalities. As a sergeant in the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office once joked to this reporter, he didn't think anyone would be able to function without using TLAs.

TLA, he said, stands for three-letter acronym.
Less is not Moore

When we received an announcement that local real estate agent Steve Eldridge with Alain Pinel Realtors of Menlo Park was certified as a "luxury home marketing specialist," we also learned of the extremely apropos name of the president of the Dallas-based Institute for Luxury Home Marketing, which does the certifying.

Her name is Laurie Moore-Moore. Feel free to insert an appropriate joke of your choosing. There were too many for the Short Takes editor to choose from.

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