Saturday, August 2, 2008

Barf-inducing Language Trend du Jour

Enjoy a mani and a pedi.
... meaning "manicure and pedicure."

Yacktacular.

P.S. I copy edit stuff like this. Please don't think I would read material of this nature unless I was being paid to.

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3 comments:

AdamH said...

Well... did you change them to manicure and pedicure? Or is that changing the author's original words too much? It's a fine line.

June Casagrande said...

I didn't touch 'em. That's the lingo in this publication. Who am I to infuse it with taste and common sense?

June Casagrande said...

I should add: Part of the reason I didn't touch them is that I have a prejudice and I know it.

I'm weirded out and a little disturbed by the spa trend that seemed to storm into the middle- and lower-middle classes during the dot-com boom. Suddenly, every woman I knew wanted to get smeared with mud and various foodstuffs. Now I'm up to my ears in ridiculous spa copy ("Try the pineapple sea-salt calming facial along with the peppermint-chili exfoliating foot scrub"). And it seems manicurist shops have proliferated like dumpster rodents.

Half the women I know are regular manicurist customers but have no savings. Some have debt. Their futures would look a lot brighter if they just socked away (groan) that $80 a month.

So, the words "mani" and "pedi" represent the ubiquitousness of all this stuff. And, with it, the suckering of women who won't be able to afford heating oil when they retire but have fabulous nails today.

On some level I get the appeal and may even be a little conflicted. But my official position is: "Please make it stop."

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