Watercooler Stories

Internet, globalization shape new words

NEW YORK, July 10 (UPI) -- New words added to the Merriam-Webster Collegiate dictionary show the influence of the Internet and globalization on U.S. English, its publishers said.

A sample list of 100 new words released by the publisher Thursday includes some words and expressions that have been around for years or even decades but have gained wider currency because of the Internet, The Guardian reported. They include "sock puppet," coined as early as 1959, and "flash mob," which can be traced to 1987.

There is also the usual new crop of words, this time including entries like "vlog," a blog containing video.

Reggaeton, a word coined to describe Puerto Rican music mixing Reggae and rap, and haram, the Arabic word for foods forbidden by Islamic law, demonstrate the diversity of American English, the reort said. So do acai, a South and Central American fruit newly popular because of its supposed dietary virtues, and goji, an Asian berry popular as a drink flavor.

Other new additions include staycation, locavore (a person who eats locally grown foods) and frenemy (somebody who acts like a friend but is actually an enemy). The last word was used by British-American writer Jessica Mitford in a 1970s essay, in which she said it had been coined by one of her sisters decades earlier.

Well-dressed beggar says good clothes help

DETROIT, July 10 (UPI) -- A well-dressed Detroit panhandler says his silk suits and London Fog trench coat, all obtained for free from a Catholic church, help him make money.

Kirby Jack Green, 58, told The Detroit News he has been able to collect enough, an average of $150 a week, to pay for a small apartment to stow his wardrobe. He works the sidewalks around city hall, waiting for drivers or pedestrians to ask for directions, and then adds a request for bus fare to his response.

Green keeps his wardrobe in good shape, using an ironing board and iron obtained from the church as well as duct tape and safety pins. He shaves carefully every morning using a donated razor.

"What's the old saying? Oh, yeah, one man's garbage is another man's, uh, clothes, I guess," he told the News.

Green said his uncle used to panhandle on Woodward Avenue, using dark glasses and a cane to convince passers by he was blind, which he was not.

"I'm a criminal," Green said. "I'm a panhandler and I lie. I don't need money for the bus and I think that God must be ashamed of me."

Some Calif. stations reject pro-pot ad

LOS ANGELES, July 10 (UPI) -- A TV ad by a group advocating the legalization and taxation of marijuana in California will not be run by some TV stations, the group said.

The Marijuana Policy Project, the national pro-cannabis legalization group behind the ad campaign, said Los Angeles stations KTLA-TV and KABC-TV have rejected the group's TV spot due to concerns about its content, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Bruce Mirken, a spokesman for the group, said the ad supports legalization and taxation of marijuana as a method of helping the state solve its budget problems.

The group said the ad features "an actual California marijuana consumer," Nadene Herndon of Fair Oaks, talking about the state's proposed budget cuts to schools, police and state parks. Herndon says in the ad that California officials "are ignoring millions of Californians who want to pay taxes. We're marijuana consumers."

Mirkin said the ad is expected to run about 200 times during the next week on California stations.

California state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, authored a bill this year that would apply a regulatory framework to marijuana similar to that currently used for alcohol. Lawmakers in Sacramento have not taken action on the bill.

Customers decide barbershop price

BEIJING, July 10 (UPI) -- A barber shop in China has taken customer service to a new level by letting clients determine the price of their haircuts.

The facility in Xian, capital of the northwest Shaanxi province, initiated the marketing strategy in December and the response has been quite good, local media reports quoted by China Daily said.

Under the strategy, customers are asked to rate the service on scale of one to 10.

"If the customer gives us 10 marks, he has to make the full payment, if he says eight, he gets a 20 percent discount," said the shop's manager.

Whatever a customer pays then become his barber's wage.

Clients aren't complaining. One of them was quoted as saying it a "brilliant way to improve customer service."