The Inquiring Manatee

Annoying Phrases, Continued:

 

Today's Annoying Phrases: "Going forward," "free gift" and "all new."

 Going forward. I forget; I may have bashed this one before. It's adopted diplomaticspeak, and it's used universally these days in place of the homier "from now on" or "from here on out." It's pretentious, like borrowing the British "at the end of the day." Those who use it, please knock it off.

  Free gift. Marketing at its lowest common denominator. If it's not free, it's not a gift, is it? If it's a gift, it has to be free. Use one word or the other, but not both. That's redundant. Something is free. Good enough. Or something is a gift. Good enough; it's understood to be free. Don't fall for this one.

  All New. Used chiefly for TV series episodes and cars. What else should we expect: a TV episode partly consisting of old scenes? A new car with used parts from a 1949 Frazer? "New" should be good enough for anybody. The "all" is assumed.

Obama to Reverse Bush on Stem Cells: Oh.

   

President Obama is set to announce Monday that he's ending George W. Bush's outrageous restriction on federal funding of stem cell research, removing American science from the clutches of fundamentalist Know Nothings.
    My only reaction is: What took Obama so long?
    This no-brainer of a presidential action should have been Obama's first official act on January 20, 2009.
     Let the cures commence now.

Want to Lose Weight? Forget Dieting.

   

There are news reports out today about a research study published online by the New England Journal of Medicine. It concerns dieting, and after years of study concludes that any diet combination of carbs, fats and proteins is equally effective for weight loss provided that you simply cut the number of calories you ingest.
     Unfortunately, the study misses the point. No diet works alone to lose you weight. You have to exercise, too. 
     In fact, the only way to lose weight and keep it off is to run. Yes, get off your butt and run. Fearful of hurting your little knees? Go to a drugstore and buy Spandex knee guards. They work well for protection, and will actually cure knee pains.
     Start by walking around the block. Build up to runs of 50 yards at a time. Keep it up. Before you know it, you'll be running a mile at a time. Then go up gradually to two miles. Then three. Enjoy your first 5-K (3.1-mile) race in the company of hundreds of other runners. Or just run by yourself, always facing traffic if you run on the roads.
     You don't have to run any more than 20 miles a week to get maximum aerobic benefits from running, which are considerable. So work up to that.
     Running will shed the weight off you as if you've had liposuction. It works quickly.
     And it's the only thing that works. The only thing.