The Secular Blasphemer's 2003 roundup
I am late but good. This is the words that defined 2003 as I see it, and which again were defined by 2003, so now it is my turn to define them.
Embedded: For some arcane reason, the word of the year for YourDictionary so I have to mention it. To stay-at-home journalists, this meant journalists were "in-bed-with" the military. The logic was that misanthropic drunks sitting in their New York or London offices would know far better than journalists on the spot what was going on in Iraq. Well, if we take Robert Fisk (Cough) as an example, that is sometimes true.
Blog: Well, 2003 was supposedly the year blogs went mainstream, but most people I meet still say "huh" when I tell them I write a blog. Like the Internet itself, it will be a gradual process. One year most people didn't know what it is, the next they have heard about it and most consider it sleazy or exotic, and a few years down the line it's just a part of their lives.
Sars: The epidemic may or may not be over, but it certainly caused a panic which probably was a good thing for once. It seems that we, except 800 of us, got away with the scare. If the powers that be had reacted like this to Aids in the 80s, the world would have been a far better place. Do panic!
Video recording: Osama Bin Laden used to send us these, but not last year.
Audio recording: Osama Bin Laden's most potent weapon in 2003. Hey, it rattled Norway for a few days. So far, it seems that countries singled out for retribution in al-Qaeda tapes are the safest places to be.
Foam: A seemingly soft and insignificant thing that can nevertheless destroy valuable things, like the space shuttle Columbia or Nasa's reputation.
Blackout: Northeast US and parts of Canada was suddenly without power for a day in August, to the endless amusement of many Baghdad residents. Shortly afterwards, a brief power outage hit London. The next month, it was Denmark and Sweden's turn to go dark one day, and Italy's turn the other. All a coincidence? Hard to imagine otherwise.
Spider hole: Originally a Viet Nam term for a hiding place for an enemy sniper, the word was rushed into the mainstream when US soldiers likened Saddam Hussein's very modest hiding place to one. He hid well, but not well enough. Ladies and gentlemen, we got him.
Deck of cards: It's all the Pentagon's fault. The number of wanted Iraqi leaders was 55, so somebody came up with the brilliant idea of issuing the wanted list as a deck of playing cards, becoming a valuable collector's item on EBay around one hour later. After that we got a deck of crooks, right wingers made a deck of weasels and left wingers made its own decks, including a French conspiracy deck. Solitaire will never be the same again, unilateral or not.
Sodomy: Is now constitutional in the US, even Texas. Gay rights groups celebrated by using the new freedom on Rick Santorum, who did not take the ruling well at all. Since Santorum is not human, does it make it bestiality?
Unilateral: In 2003, the press redefined this term to mean any action or coalition that doesn't include the French.
2004: Bring it on!
11:01:36 AM 
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