Words

You gotta hand it to the British. Along with that stiff upper lip, they rock when it comes to gentility. Part of it’s the accent, of course. Even the least educated UK citizen sounds like a Harvard grad to my ears. But it’s more than that. It’s the words.

Here are two memorable examples from yesterday’s news coverage of the tragedy.

Since three of the blasts occurred in trains (subways?), a lot of eyewitness accounts came from passengers. They began by identifying which "carriage” they were in. I don’t know about you, but when I hear the word “carriage” I think “Central Park” and “horse drawn”, not an overcrowded, smelly tube whisking me through the bowels of Central London.

Next, toward the end of the workday, I saw a London official (maybe the Mayor?) addressing the logistics of getting workers from their jobs in the city to their homes in the suburbs. He kept referring to their “journey”…as in, “tonight, citizens will need to practice patience in their journey homeward.” Again, I don’t know about you, but when I leave work it’s a "commute"…as in, please commute my sentence, release me from prison, and let me get the hell home. The British make it sound like leaving work is a life affirming experience. Well, maybe yesterday it was.

So, do the British use language as a way of putting a smiley face on the ugly stuff?

Hm. Whatta concept.