2008 List of Words To Be Banned Include 'Carbon Footprint' and 'Going Green'

It's about time. Apparently, I'm not the only driven up a wall by all things going green.

A movie about a "maverick," his journey "from Wall Street to Main Street," his "desperate search" for a "monkey" and a "game-changing" revelation about his "carbon footprint" probably would make the nation's word-watchers physically ill.

Especially if it were the "winner of five nominations."

All those words and phrases are on Lake Superior State University's annual List of Words to Be Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness. The 34th version of the list was released Tuesday, which means, "It's that time of year again."

The school in Michigan's Upper Peninsula selected 15 entries from about 5,000 nominations.

Despite the year's economic meltdown (which itself wasn't banished but don't rule it out for next year), the most entries came from the environmental category — for "green" or "going green."

"If I see one more corporation declare itself 'green,' I'm going to start burning tires in my backyard," wrote Ed Hardiman of Bristow, Va., in his submission. Nominators also had their fill of "carbon footprint" — the amount of greenhouse gases an individual's lifestyle produces.

Another on that grates like nails on a chalkboard (wait, is that phrase banned?) is the dreaded staycation. It was bad enough this past summer we were inundated daily with stories about gas prices, but then we had to hear about people not going on vacation, but staying home--hence staycation.

Although this year's sluggish economy and record rise in gas prices may have kept people closer to home, the word coined for it, "staycation," is "idiotic and rootless," says Michele Mooney of Los Angeles.