A Truthiness Fract!

Just thought I'd report on a recent episode of the Colbert Report (pronounced "coal-bear rapport" and one of our favorite shows) I saw. For those that don't know, it's a satirical/current events show that parodies, in the utmost, other punditry shows like the "O'Reilly Factor", "Hannity and Colmes", etc.

Anyway, Stephen Colbert, the host/"professional idiot" (his words), has a segment each night called "The Word", for which he uses a word (sometimes real, oftentimes made up) to discuss and opine on a topic or theme. In his very first show, in an effort to establish his credibility, "The Word" was "truthiness" -- a word that, for all intents and purposes, had never existed before (although he did adamantly insist it was a real word and suggested we "look it up!").

On Monday night's episode, he addressed a news article regarding the selection of the 2005 "Word of the Year" which, get this, turned out to be "truthiness." However, he is never credited in the article for establishing the word (http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/07/word.contest.ap/.

Needless to say, he was faux-outraged at both the journalist who wrote the article (she was "dead to him" -- for which he placed her name right under "men with beards" and above "Canada" on his board of persons or entities who are dead to him) and the N.C. State professor of lexicology (whom he put on his "put on notice" board, just below "grizzly bears") who defined the word as meaning "truthy, not facty." Colbert goes so far as to threaten to track him down at Tompkins Hall on NC State's campus!

The other thing that tickled my fancy on this particular episode was a "Freedom Fact" ("Fract") segment, which was this simple statement: "Before Columbus, Native Americans did not even know what an "American" was." This was so funny to me because Dana, Kris, and I had just discussed this -- that it was not "America" at the time that so-called Native Americans lived here and that it would be more appropriate to call them something else. After discussing the merits of the terms "Indians" (inaccurate), "injuns" (offensive), and "Native Americans" (not applicable), we decided on the (exceedingly politically correct?) "indigenous peoples of this land" or "ipols," for short. We all had a big laugh at the time, but now I'm thinking we just may have established the 2006 Word of the Year!

Well, hope ya'll enjoyed these long-winded musings on my recent TV-viewing!

Love to all.

P.s. While writing this, I realized that "ipol" only makes sense when used within America ("this land") -- so that doesn't really work either! Alas, the search for a viable label continues...