Parish
No More 'Skronky'
RECEIVED Thu., April 6, 2006
Dear Editor,
To the writers in your paper who repeatedly use the word "skronky" in the description of the sound of music (you know who you are), may I respectfully request that you either publish a definition alongside it, or remove it from the vernacular of the paper? After the fourth or fifth time I saw it, I felt this letter could no longer be put off.
It's not that I'm some kind of cranky grammar grandma sleeping with a dictionary between my legs. It's just that the word "skronky" conveys absolutely nothing meaningful about anything I know of. And while I'm all for creative license, this may be one scenario where you should heed that red line that I know your computer is putting under the word "skronky,” because my computer is doing just that right now.
To the writers in your paper who repeatedly use the word "skronky" in the description of the sound of music (you know who you are), may I respectfully request that you either publish a definition alongside it, or remove it from the vernacular of the paper? After the fourth or fifth time I saw it, I felt this letter could no longer be put off.
It's not that I'm some kind of cranky grammar grandma sleeping with a dictionary between my legs. It's just that the word "skronky" conveys absolutely nothing meaningful about anything I know of. And while I'm all for creative license, this may be one scenario where you should heed that red line that I know your computer is putting under the word "skronky,” because my computer is doing just that right now.
Sincerely,
Max Juren
Max Juren
[Editor's reply: "Skronky" is, of course, the adjectival version of "skronk," a term that likely sprung from the free jazz movement of the Sixties and itself was probably a bastardization of "honk" - a "honking" horn solo with a lot more dissonance. Time to update your computer's spellcheck.]
