Here is the message I have just had to send to most of my
e-mail correspondents:
In its latest piece of spectacular idiocy, Microsoft is
closing the e-mail accounts of countless people who use hotmail or outlook. The
instructions they give for retaining one’s account are complex and intrusive,
and don’t work anyway. Today is my last chance to send e-mails, so from now on
anyone needing to get in touch with me should use the telephone: 0030 24240 66
202. If ringing from inside Greece, omit the 0030.
Sorry for the inconvenience; it is not of my making.
Simon Darragh.
Let us move on to more congenial matters. I was talking
yesterday of my admiration for those of limited vocabulary who practice
linguistic economy by swearing a lot. My contempt is reserved for people who
use too many, or genuinely unnecessary, or bogus words and expressions. Here
are a few such:
At this moment in time. (Why not just say ‘Now’?)
On a daily basis. (Why not just say ‘Daily’?)
Pro-active. (This hideous word seems to mean nothing at all;
perhaps just ‘alert’.)
Facility. (American officialese for anything from the
Guantanamo torture ‘facility’ to public lavatories.)
Warmer Temperatures. (A favourite of the BBC. Temperatures
of course do not themselves have temperatures. You can say ‘Warmer’ or ‘Higher
temperatures’.)
There are of course countless others, but just now I fear I
must waste time that could be better spent practicing the piano in trying to
get my e-mail back.
As the blog is administered by Google it will I hope
continue; Microsoft should not be able to get their interfering hands on it.
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