My friend Laurie has brought to my attention another of those common suspect substitute words, so I feel only duty bound to pass it on to you [although, if my theory holds, you've probably heard it already]. Laurie's radar has picked up on the usage of "worthwild" in place of "worthwhile", and I would have to say "confirmed" to that, baby. Respect.

Major gripe of the day has been building for weeks, and it is this - what's up with Matt Lauer and the word 'quirky'? Seriously, a day barely goes by that he doesn't use 'quirky', usually in a variation of the sentence "Let's face it, this is one quirky [film, concept, idea, situation, etc.]". And we always have to face it, man. Why? How can everything be quirky? [Everything isn't, actually. Some things just are what they are, and Matt just needs to get out more. Preferably to a bookstore, to buy a thesaurus] If I have thus far failed to prove the worthiness of this gripe, have patience my pretties. The fact of the [mis/over]use of an annoying word by an annoying person is not the most irritating and gripe-worthy part of this. It's more a case of the way he uses it, like he's telling us something we wouldn't otherwise know were someone as smart and deeply incisive as he not around to shape our perceptions of the world. But with the word 'quirky' [and only the word 'quirky']? Is he serious? How on earth is that a demonstration of smarts? That is one laughable guy. Yeah. If I had to reduce the entire personhood of Matt Lauer to one descriptor, 'laughable' would be it. Let's face it.

Just a brief note sending out much love to Johnny Cash for the song "Rusty Cage" which is full of toe-tapping goodness. Also, deeply indebted to the recently late John Ritter for reminding me how funny 'faking surprise by spurting out the water in your mouth' can be, when done by a seasoned professional, as he showcased in an interview last week on ET with Jann Carl.

I'm not sure if what I am going to say next is unsavoury or unnecessary or what, so I won't lead you into any prejudgment by colouring it with adjectives such as 'unsavoury' or 'unnecessary'. Instead, I'll just come out and say it. I have a prediction that I think will be proven true in a future time and place. I think that the White Stripes will definitely play a Johnny Cash cover during their concert on October 14th. I also think that they will preface the playing of this cover with some brief details about the song and who it belongs to, possibly followed by some kind of gesture of 'props' or 'God bless', but done in the most understated way possible, which is self-conscious understatement nonetheless. I'm not trying to imply anything about anyone with this prediction, I just have a feeling that it will play out exactly like that.