scrapiana

more on rampage...one reporter today on NPR became so caught up in the moment, that while interviewing a plant ecologist about the environmental details of today's blazes, she asked,

"What effect will these rampaging wildflowers have in the long term?"

Best laugh I had all day...the visual image was just too strong. I could only see ranks of Gary Larsenish daisies and roses viciously assaulting strangers and wrangly weeds rapidly engulfing the canyon homes and hillsides in a tangle of thorns and pollen. Like a rural version of 'Little Shop of Horrors', they roared,

"feed me, Seymour!".

I don't know what the expert had to say.

I know it's been a long time since I posted. No excuses...I just didn't feel like writing, but the fires of Southern California have finally stung my inner muse into action. I am convinced that there are times when certain words become overused, abused and so irritating that they cease to mean anything at all.

Some words are meant to be used sparingly...rampage is one of them.

For the past two days, excited reporters have been tearing into regular media programming to breathlessly inform the public that wildfires have been 'rampaging' through Southern California. Rampage is the 'verb du jour', and I for one am heartily sick of it. Yes, the fires are out of control, they have spread rapidly, they have destroyed hundreds of homes and taken over a dozen lives. Is there no other verb in the english language to describe the event? In times like these a lexicographer can only turn within and ask...

What would Roget do?