It irks me. It is irksome.

Okay, anyone who has known me for more than 30 seconds will probably agree that I have a list of pet peeves, things that annoy me, and odd tics in my brain that is about as long as a roller towel. And I cannot, unfortunately, disagree with this stance.

So, I will limit my irked-ness this morning to just two things.

1.) In-depth. I hate the word in-depth. (Okay, hyphenate. Whatever.) I'm not sure at what point my mild irritation at this word being used so poorly moved up a gear to hatred, but it happened. And it is the loose use that annoys me so much. I want to shout, "You can't call something this shallow in-depth!" almost every time I hear it. One of the many poor uses I've seen recently is for our Bible bowl "parent handbook", which quite brazenly lies to the 4th-6th grade parents by telling them that their children will get an in-depth study of (insert book here). Actually, it is quite the opposite; we want the children to learn the words on the page, and we don't delve into any deeper meanings (unless it is to explain something they may not know about, such as "fasting"), trusting that they will get the deeper meanings in a different Bible class.

2.) Officially. I've noticed lately that this word has fallen into the same vernacular trap as "literally." It is used a lot when one actually intends the opposite meaning. For example: "It is officially the end of summer." I can't tell you how many times I read that sentence in a blog over the course of the last two months. I can tell you that summer was officially over on September 22nd. The rot started with aim/Sunset people, who declared summer to be officially over even before the Summer Olympics started. Which shows a startling lack of common sense. Next to fall were the parents of school-aged children, declaring the end of summer all over the web, just because their children were back in the land of learning. Then there were the people who aren't in school and just decided that once Labour Day is past, the summer must be over. Finally, those of us who can read were able to clear up this confusion at the autumnal equinox and declare the official end of summer two weeks ago. And we were the correct ones. If you want to declare the unofficial end of autumn before December 21st, be prepared for me to leave you a comment telling you to look at a calendar.

So there you are, my gripes o' the week. Stay tuned for my diatribe on "literally." And then I'll tell you all about how "journal" is a noun, not a verb. I know you just can't wait.