The big news for everyone who likes to fret over the vagaries of the Associated Press Stylebook is that the 2007 version of the venerable guide has finally arrived and, yes, "BlackBerry" has finally been included, to the chagrin of everyone who finds the mention of the ubiquitous white-collar prop to be unbearable. Also, making the grade: airstrike (so hot right now), boogie (can bootylicious be far behind?), carry-on (no liquids within, by the way), Swift boat (ugh!), and, in what had to have been a long, Susan Lucci-esque quest for recognition, Katmandu .
These are certainly exciting times for these words and phrases (uhm...we guess), but in the midst of celebrating their inclusion, we feel like it is entirely just to have a moment of silence for those terms that have been stricken from the guide.
- husband: Clearly, the America-hating press has delivered a blow to the nuclear family.
- Internet Search Tips: With each passing day, we lose our fear for the internet, and thus cede the need to put capital letters on every term that pertains to it. One day, maybe we'll be brave enough to use a lowercase "W" in "Web site."
- Laundromat: No longer regarded by the AP as a "trademark for a coin operated laundry," this pulls AP Style fully into the 1980s.
- Serbia-Montenegro: We barely knew you, Serbia-Montenegro! In fact, we didn't even get around to calling you "Serbia and Montenegro " before you guys officially broke up.
- U.S. Court of Military Appeals: If there's something more passé, circa 2007, than the notion that a military court would listen to an "appeal," then we don't know what that is! That'll go double when President Romney executes his bold "Double Gitmo" plan.
- Woman's Christian Temperance Union: If only because these days, most Christian women could use a stiff drink. After all, they lost their husbands!
We'll miss you, AP Style Manual terms of the past! And for those of you who remain, don't get cocky! Like the poet said: Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for Dictaphone ("a trademark for a brand of dictation recorder").
RELATED:New AP Stylebook Appears: 'Boogie' Finally Makes It! [E&P]