如此cool的文章，岂有不转载之理？
‘Cool’ Always Has Place in Modern Lexicon
By LARRY NEUMEISTER
The Associated Press
Groovy is over, hip is square, far out is long gone. Don’t worry, though _ it’s cool.
“Cool” remains the gold standard of slang in the 21st century, as reliable as a blue-chip stock, surviving like few expressions ever in our constantly evolving language. […]
来自The Global Language Monitor（粗体部分是我加的）：
The Top Ten Words of 2005:
1. Refugee: Though the word was considered politically incorrect in the US, ‘refugees’ were often considered the lucky ones in streaming away from a series of global catastrophes unmatched in recent memory.
2. Tsunami: From the […]
上个周末NBC举办了一台赈灾晚会，众多明星齐上阵，为Hurricane Katrina地区的灾民募捐。黑人歌星Kanye West拒绝读大会事先安排给他的台词，即兴发表了一段语惊四座的话：
I hate the way they portray us in the media. If you see a black family, it says they are looting. If you see a white family, it says they are looking for food. (…) George Bush doesn’t care about black people!
这番话自然引起了激烈的争论。毫不夸张地讲一句：在美国，种族歧视永远是热门话题。
也难怪Kanye West借题发挥。巧合也好，故意也好，媒体的确用loot来描述灾区的黑人，而用look for/find来描述白人。
看看loot的定义：to steal valuables from a place during a time of […]
今天的这则新闻真是让人跌破眼镜——澳大利亚国会先是以“不够庄重”为由禁用mate这个词，接着又在一天后解禁，允许官员在适当的场合下继续使用。
Mate在口语里有“兄弟、伙计”的意思，一般用来称呼男性。这种用法是典型的英式英语（see noun 7. & 8.），相当于美国人常用的buddy，pal，man或者dude。在美国几乎没人用mate，可能大家都觉得管男人叫mate挺娘娘腔的。但在英国、新西兰和澳大利亚情况则完全不同，是朋友就可以叫mate，没有任何sissy或者gay的味道。所以，还是那句老话，语言和文化背景分不开。同样是英语，不同的地方有不同的使用习惯。
既然mate在澳大利亚有这样的用法，“不够庄重”从何而来就显而易见了。就像在正式场合上左一句“兄弟”、右一句“伙计”不合时宜一样，称呼政府官员为mate的确有失身份。
话虽如此，特地颁布一道禁止令实在没有必要。我同意John Howard（澳洲首相）的观点：在国会里可能用sir或ma’am来打招呼比较恰当，但“应该”和“必须”是两回事。禁用一个不存在原则性问题的单词既荒唐又不可行。
Bob Hawke （澳洲前首相）也发表了他的看法：
It (banning “mate”) is pomposity gone mad.
It (the word “mate”) gets you out of all sorts of embarrassing situations. It’s got a nice neutrality about it. I mean, it doesn’t imply any intimacy, it shows a reasonable level of respect. I think it’s one of our great words.
幸好禁令才一天就解除，这出闹剧的结局还算合理。 […]
前天读到一则Oxford Dictionary of English收入一批新单词的消息。比较关键的几段摘录如下：
Among the new entries are “potty-mouthed” (meaning using or characterized by bad language), “lush” (very good) and “scopophilia” (sexual pleasure derived chiefly from watching others when they are naked or engaged in sexual activity).
Some words, such as “demographic” (a particular sector of a population) have become commonplace but only now make it […]
不少朋友问过我dude的用法。这个词几乎是美国年轻一代的象征，要把它介绍完整实在不容易。今天看到这则关于dude的新闻，非转载不可。只要仔仔细细把它读完，包你学到想学的东西。即使没什么是你不知道的，乐一乐也好。
为了方便，我把全文摘抄如下，关键部分以黑体字表示。
PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (AP) — Dude, you’ve got to read this.
A linguist from the University of Pittsburgh has published a scholarly paper deconstructing and deciphering the word “dude,” contending it is much more than a catchall for lazy, inarticulate surfers, skaters, slackers and teenagers.
An admitted dude-user during his college years, Scott Kiesling said the […]