So 1995, So What?

Ever find yourself infuriated by certain words or phrases? The kind whose usage in everyday conversation is often enough to trigger an explosion in your head? Lately, I've discovered that putting a contemporary spin or contextual twist on an otherwise innocuous word is sufficient to drive me nuts. Take, for example, the Americanism "sweet" (to be rolled off the tongue "sweeeet", in order to convey vehement approval), as made famous by this scene from Dude Where's my Car?. Then there's "not" - as in the 'not' jokes, suitably parodied in Borat. The effect of such usage is to not merely chip away at your nerves, but also numb your senses to the extent that you find yourself using those very words.

The latest word to get my goat is "so", used in conjunction with a specific period in time, in such a manner as to ascribe datedness to something. Sample: "You still own a discman? That is so 1999, man!" Or, "Multi-cuisine restaurants are so 1994." And even, "Those clothes are so, like, yesterday" ('Like'? The list is growing). Being an unabashed nostalgic and often prone to living in the past, my annoyance at this currently-in-vogue expression isn't all that surprising.

Perhaps I should take a leaf out of Krish Ashok's book - or a line from his blog, at any rate: "Ranting...is so Blogosphere circa 2003".

Current Music: Therapy? - Bad Karma follows you around