OK, this has been on my mind a while. It won't take long, but I've got to get this off my chest.
It has to do with a couple of business publications and some terms that they use.
The first is Forbes. And the term is "barbarous relic." They're talking about gold. As long as I can remember (and I started reading Forbes when I was in high school), they've used this as a synonym for gold. What's wrong with just plain old "gold"? Steve Forbes must think he's in a Shakespeare play or something. It's weird. Other Forbes writers do it too.
The second is our favorite stock-picking newspaper, Barron's. And the term? Punk earnings. Jesus in heaven, what sort of person came up with this expression? English is such a rich language, and there are so many other good choices – – and more widely-understood! – – than that. Lousy earnings. Poor earnings. Decimated profits. But punk? Punk is something which should be used to refer to the Sex Pistols or Blondie. It's just………weird. What's wrong with them?
OK, I'm done.
