I am fortunate enough to be able to work from home. I have a radio on in the background pretty much all day long as I go about my business. For the most part that radio is tuned to news and call-in programming. I do switch over to music from time to time, but as a news junkie I always come back at the top of the hour just to learn what is happening in the world.
… begins with the word ‘Look’. I can’t, you’re on the radio
Given this penchant for news radio, I hear, over the course of a day, numerous interviews with a wide range of people. I have noticed that responders to questions, be they politicians, person-in-the-street opinions, or, even academics use tired introductions to their responses to questions.
Or ‘Listen’; you don’t have to tell me to listen, that’s why my radio is on
Some of the older annoyances include people whose response to a question, indeed often many questions, begins with the word ‘Look’. I can’t, you’re on the radio. Or ‘Listen’; you don’t have to tell me to listen, that’s why my radio is on. A more recent, yet it’s creeping up on the irksome scale, is the habit of starting a statement or answer with the word ‘So’. Why would anyone begin an answer to a question with’ so’? Yet it has become almost re rigeur to throw in several ‘so’s’ during the course of an interview.
I am waiting for the day when a questioner responds to this by saying ‘I know, Jackass, that’s why I asked it’.
However, my favourite – and it seems to be making a return – is the current trend to start a reply with some variation of: ‘That’s a really good question’. I am waiting for the day when a questioner responds to this by saying ‘I know, Jackass, that’s why I asked it’. But, frankly, I’m not holding my breath. The ‘good question’ response opener is, of course, a means of buying time to give the respondent a few seconds to get their answer in order.
So…look…that’s a great question…but…listen…I don’t know the answer.
DCMontreal 