In honor of my friend, Judy Goodman.

Some recent developments of slang-into-common-vernacular I really dig.

For example, I love the use of “curate” far outside the art world.

Q: “Did you choose all your sister’s shoes for her?”

A: “No, I just curated her collection.”

One I don’t love is “I can’t even.” While it’s accurate shorthand, and we all know what is meant, I find myself waiting for the other word to drop.

“I can’t even describe how that felt.” Of course, you can’t, you poor dear.

Another is the oft-used millennial-and-younger phrase, “I can’t adult today.” We all know exactly what that means and we all have those days.

Language. Everything changes, yet everything stays pretty much the same in the academic and adult world of serious communication. Still, slang is what gives us timeliness and a sense of the era.

This era is maybe, like, I don’t know—like seriously incomplete?