By popular demand, we've extended the deadline for submitting entries to the Second Annual Golden Gobbledygook Award to October 28th!
Yes, Golden Gobbledygook -- the coveted prize for the best example of bad legalese. You can post your entry right here at the blog (as a comment to this post), or just send the worst example of legalese you can lay your hands on to POFP (adamjfreedman@yahoo.com).
The top three winners will get a boxed set (without the box) of the new paperback edition of my book The Party of the First Part, together with the Vocabula Review's new essay collection (a must for all language lovers): Vocabula Bound 2: Our Wresting, Writhing Tongue. Our distinguished panel of judges will announce the winners here at the POFP blog!
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Word of the Week
Golden Parachute
An "excessive" severance payment to an executive. Recent coverage of the Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (aka the "bailout bill") mentioned that Congress would restrict the "golden parachutes" available to companies that sold troubled assets to the Treasury. Many assumed that the media were just speaking informally, but in fact the "Golden Parachute Rule" is enshrined in the Tax Code -- imposing a 20% excise tax (on top of income tax) on any severance payment that is more than 300% of the executive's recent average annual pay.
Legal Brainteaser: What's a Country?
Sure, you're a little bit country. But what if your country isn't really a "country"?
This question -- or something like it -- recently gripped the Ninth Circuit when reviewing a deportation order against Nikolay Dzyuba. The Bureau of Immigration Appeals had ordered Dzyuba deported to the Ukraine, which they considered to the be the "country" from which he had entered the US back in 1991. The problem is that when Dzyuba entered the US, on July 5, 1991, the Ukraine was still part of the Soviet Union. It did not gain its independence until August 24, 1991 -- seven weeks after Dzyuba's entry.
This argument sent the judges scrambling for their copy of Webster's Third New International Dictionary but that Dictionary says that "country" can be either an independent political entity or a geographic region. As is sadly typical in modern "descriptivist" dictionaries, Webster's indicates no preference for either meaning. The question ultimately proved too daunting for the Circuit -- they kicked the case back to the Bureau of Immigration Appeals to decide whether pre-independence Ukraine was a "country."
Any bets on what they'll decide?
This question -- or something like it -- recently gripped the Ninth Circuit when reviewing a deportation order against Nikolay Dzyuba. The Bureau of Immigration Appeals had ordered Dzyuba deported to the Ukraine, which they considered to the be the "country" from which he had entered the US back in 1991. The problem is that when Dzyuba entered the US, on July 5, 1991, the Ukraine was still part of the Soviet Union. It did not gain its independence until August 24, 1991 -- seven weeks after Dzyuba's entry.
This argument sent the judges scrambling for their copy of Webster's Third New International Dictionary but that Dictionary says that "country" can be either an independent political entity or a geographic region. As is sadly typical in modern "descriptivist" dictionaries, Webster's indicates no preference for either meaning. The question ultimately proved too daunting for the Circuit -- they kicked the case back to the Bureau of Immigration Appeals to decide whether pre-independence Ukraine was a "country."
Any bets on what they'll decide?
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Straight Talk on Gobbledygook -- and Reform
Cheryl Stephens -- plain language guru -- has cleared up the original meaning of the word "gobbledygook."
The term was coined by Henry Maverick, but as Stephens points out:
For more of Cheryl's wisdom, check out her terrific blog, Building Rapport. In particular, you'll see information about the Plain Language in Government Communications Act now pending in Congress. To heck with the bailout; urge your congressman to support that.
The term was coined by Henry Maverick, but as Stephens points out:
Maverick said the bureaucratic style of writing reminded him of the turkeys who strutted around the yard making a lot of noise that ended in a pile of sputum on the ground. That sputum was the gobble-de-gook. Not the strut nor the song-- the spit and pus!
For more of Cheryl's wisdom, check out her terrific blog, Building Rapport. In particular, you'll see information about the Plain Language in Government Communications Act now pending in Congress. To heck with the bailout; urge your congressman to support that.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Word of the Week
Ferae Naturae
Latin (literally, "of a wild nature"); used as both a noun and an adjective to refer to animals of a sort that are not normally domesticated. Under traditional common law rules, the owner of an animal ferae naturae was strictly liable for any injuries caused by the animal.
The Second Annual Golden Gobbledygook Award!
Just what you've all been waiting for -- a Prize for the best example of bad legalese.
The term "gobbledygook" was coined by a Texas congressman, Henry Maverick. He meant for the word to evoke the sound that gobbling turkeys make. The word was meant as an indictment of confusing legalese and officialese.
But people have come to take legalese in stride; to which POFP says "Enough!
Send the worst example of legalese you can lay your hands on to POFP (adamjfreedman@yahoo.com) -- and you can be the proud winner of the Golden Gobbledygook Award. The top three winners will get a boxed set (without the box) of the new paperback edition of my book The Party of the First Part, together with the Vocabula Review's new essay collection (a must for all language lovers): Vocabula Bound 2: Our Wresting, Writhing Tongue. Winners will be announced October 14th.
Looking for inspiration? Check out the Legalese Hall of Shame at POFP's website. (The two recent entries listed below will be considered for the prize... but the competition is wide open!).
The term "gobbledygook" was coined by a Texas congressman, Henry Maverick. He meant for the word to evoke the sound that gobbling turkeys make. The word was meant as an indictment of confusing legalese and officialese.
But people have come to take legalese in stride; to which POFP says "Enough!
Send the worst example of legalese you can lay your hands on to POFP (adamjfreedman@yahoo.com) -- and you can be the proud winner of the Golden Gobbledygook Award. The top three winners will get a boxed set (without the box) of the new paperback edition of my book The Party of the First Part, together with the Vocabula Review's new essay collection (a must for all language lovers): Vocabula Bound 2: Our Wresting, Writhing Tongue. Winners will be announced October 14th.
Looking for inspiration? Check out the Legalese Hall of Shame at POFP's website. (The two recent entries listed below will be considered for the prize... but the competition is wide open!).
New Entries in the Hall of Shame
Two new entries for the Legalese Hall of Shame in our related website.
- From attorney Erin Engels, a baffling sentence from a retirement agreement. The lawyer used 150 words to say "Retiree waives his right to sue the employer." But why just "waive" a right when you can "release, remit, remise, acquit and forever discharge " a right? It's hard work, but then this was a union job.
- From concerned citizen Howard Kline, an Ohio traffic ordinance that requires a GPS unit to navigate your way through the dangling modifiers.
In our never-ending quest to reform legal language, we've exposed these (and other) examples of bad legalese to public ridicule. Check them out at the Hall of Shame!
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