Grumpy Editor

Princeton University bans any word containing ‘man’

This just in:  Princeton University in New Jersey no longer has freshmen --- they are now known as first-year students, observes Grumpy Editor.

It’s all part of a national trend toward doing away with man in solo form or contained in a descriptive word, and going gender neutral.

Among other “neutral” changes:  substituting ancestors for forefathers and using humanity or people rather than mankind.  (But those behind the anti-man policy overlooked the word humanity contains the three banned letters m-a-n.)

Other universities also are pushing for the use of gender neutral or gender inclusive language.

Anything with “man” gets tossed.

Even workmanlike is being thrown out and replaced with skillful.

Replacement words are being used on a variety of occupations that typically include the word “man,” such as businessman, foreman and weatherman.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE...

From yesterday’s New York Post column under the headline, American journalism is collapsing before our eyes by Michael Goodwin, Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist who has been on the New York media scene for 30 years: After mentioning The New York Times (where he once worked) used to be considered “the flagship of journalism,” Goodwin wrote, “The Times now is so out of the closet as a Clinton shill that it is giving itself permission to violate any semblance of evenhandedness in its news pages as well as its opinion pages"...Nasty comments came from readers of the St. Louis Business Journal after it profiled the city’s 25 “most influential business women” in a photo gallery that shows each with a pair of shoes. Apparently St. Louis business readers aren't familiar with the much-larger-in-circulation Bloomberg Businessweek that regularly runs a feature that identifies sources of clothes and shoes of prominent business people.  Current Businessweek, for example, displays a full page focusing on the attire of a female San Francisco executive --- and noting her shoes are Saint Laurent...Meanwhile, a strange Bloomberg Businessweek cover now lurks on newsstands.  Name of the magazine is hardly readable as the title, in dark gray, fades into a black background where date of issue is just about invisible.  The cover's main line --- traditionally to attract attention --- is a mere three sixteenths of an inch in height with seven tiny words in yellow...Ford plans to produce self-driving cars for commercial ride-sharing or on-demand taxi services by 2021...While some cable news networks went almost wall-to-wall with word that Donald Trump's campaign chairman Paul Manafort resigned, some newspapers wrapped up the development in seven sentences.  Such concentrated effort, incidentally, sidetracks coverage of the monster flood that smacked Louisiana. Old-school news reporters say if the once-in-a-century flood happened in New York, Chicago or Los Angeles, there would be non-stop coverage at the top of the news…Trump blasted the media last week for what he viewed as distorted and biased reporting.  On Saturday he threatened to ban more news organizations from covering his campaign...Meanwhile, the Trump campaign released its first TV ads of the general election with a $4 million buy.  But it is still far behind the $61 million the Hillary Clinton campaign spent so far...Many TV news operations aren’t too alarmed by 15 more Guantanamo Bay prisoners being released even though military experts say 2o to 30 percent of them go back into the field as bad guys.

 

A surprise appearance of a life-size statue of a naked Donald Trump appearing in New York City’s Union Square prompted this response from (presumably a straight-faced) parks spokesman:

“NYC Parks stands firmly against any unpermitted erection in city parks, no matter how small.”  

 

Marines succumb to PC, remove “man” from specialties

It didn’t get much play in print/broadcast media when the Marine Corps announced it is yielding to political correctness and is removing “man” from 19 of its job specialty titles in a move to be more gender-neutral, notes Grumpy Editor.

Antitank missileman, for example, will become antitank gunner; field artillery operations man will become field artillery operations chief. and reconnaissance man identifier and its subcategories will shift to reconnaissance Marine, according to documents obtained by Stars and Stripes.

Rifleman and mortarman classifiers will remain, as they are embedded in Marine Corps culture, writes S&S staffer Alex Horton, who adds, “Other changes are meant to align with updated terminology, said a Marine personnel official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.”

The change comes after Navy Secretary Ray Mabus in January ordered Gen. Robert Neller, the Marine Corps commandant, to end gender-segregated training, Horton points out.

The S&S writer says Mabus wrote, “This is an opportunity to update the position title and descriptions themselves to demonstrate through this language that women are included,” adding “man” should be removed from titles.

The memos follow Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s decision in December to open all combat-related jobs to women.

Meanwhile, a poll by Economist/YouGov finds only 39 percent of women support registration of women for the draft in legislation working its way through Congress.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE...

Look for higher cost to satisfy your latte habit.  Starbucks plans to hike prices of some drinks tomorrow, with some items rising as much as 30 cents…With all the action going on in the U.S., President Obama yesterday was visiting a naval base --- in Spain…Following dozens of layoffs at its main newsroom in New York, Newsweek is planning to launch an Indian edition...Donald Trump isn't the only one:  71 percent of those polled by Marketplace and Edison Research think the U.S. economic system is "rigged in favor of certain groups."  The pollsters note with those saying "rigged,” it didn't matter if the person was white, black or Hispanic or whether they identified as Republican, Democrat or Independent...Truth in Advertising accuses Wal-Mart Stores of misleading customers by branding products with high foreign content as "Made in the U.S.A."...Fox Business Network, which ended 2015 as the fastest-growing cable news channel, continues that growth in this year's first half, according to Nielsen Media Research...Restaurant sales are virtually flat and some analysts worry that’s a bad sign for the U.S. economy as a whole, reports Business Insider...Getting a green light to start non-stop airline service this fall to Cuba are United Continental, Delta, American, JetBlue, Southwest, Alaska, Spirit and Frontier.

 

                     Who was George Washington?

A report by the American Council of trustees and Alumni finds only 23 of the top 76 colleges deemed to be "best" by U.S. News & World Report's 2016 rankings require history majors to take at least one U.S. history course.