Quick, Vince Young, hit the ground--Steve Young just threw an errant metaphor

Sadly, Vince Young of the NFL Tennessee Titans is on a leave of absence. The former University of Texas star quarterback has not fit in well thus far with the Titan offense and NFL defenses. He has also regrettably sustained an injury. Young is experiencing emotional duress.


Steve Young (no relation), former star quarterback for the San Francisco Forty-Niners, recently commented on Vince Young's relationship with his teammates. The question put to Steve Young: Will he (Vince Young) and they (Young's Titan team mates) be able to trust each other when he returns?

Steve Young's response: "Like I said...it takes a few weeks before you can hit the ground running."

Presumably, Steve Young meant by "hit the ground running" the ability of Vince Young and his team mates to immediately trust each other. However, "hit the ground running" implies no preparation is required for taking up some endeavor immediately.* If Vince were to hit the ground running, he'd be back on the field right now in his position of starting quarterback. There would be no need to propagate mutual trust between Vince and his team mates, no need for them to learn how to trust.

As it is, trust has been damaged, and Vince Young and his team mates will require mutual work together to regenerate the trust that leads to points on the board, which we are not putting above Young's emotional equilibrium.

*hit the ground running (mainly American) to immediately work very hard and successfully at a new activity (The Free Dictionary, Farlex, online)

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Being satisfied without being bad

Recently, I asked my wife if she would like another mojito, a delicious Cuban cocktail made of rum and limes. She replied to me: "I'm good." She meant, "No, thanks. I'm satisfied"; or, "No thanks. I'm effectively full." She did not mean to suggest that she is a decent person, or a well-behaved person, or even that she is in fine condition. (see below). Admittedly the odds favored my wife and many others using this perfectly useful word according to Project Gutenberg, (ranked number 98), yet, we are hopeful, under conditions other than rejecting a delicious cocktail.

Grammatically, when one says (as many today do say) "I'm good," they are literally arrogating to themselves high compliments of decency, being well-behaved, being moral, enjoyable, healthful (that is, good for your health...), even if their intent is an idiomatic "No thank you." My wife is certainly all of the virtues ascribed to "good," a fact that has well-complemented our partnership and my affection for her, but really, to reject a perfectly good drink while arrogating to yourself the virtues of "good," is not seemly, even if an accepted idiom.

I (subject) am (linking verb) good. (predicate adjective).

good: adj. excellent; pleasant; pleasurable; decent; valid; well-behaved; in fine condition, useful, healthful, beneficial, competent, skilled; positive; having admirable moral values

While we understand the idiomatic intent of my wife's response, some idioms I will not abide. "I'm good" is one such idiom. How about the simple: "I'm satisfied," or "I'm content." Literal meanings are not always to be avoided. The point: Do not use idioms as a shorthand always when a literal response will suffice. Sometimes, literalness is good. That is: useful and beneficial.

"Way" Too Much Idiomatic Speech

"No Way, No Way," by Vanilla girls' band. Do you think there's a "way"? No way! Or, is it satire?




Now to the grammar citation* and the many uses of the word "way"

*citation meaning: "a summons to appear in (grammar) court"

An otherwise well-informed and well-spoken guest on Ian Master's political forum, "Background Briefing," a radio program produced in Los Angeles, responded to a Masters question surrounding the seeming ineffectiveness of world judicial bodies pursuing such villains as the Burmese Military Junta which most recently shutdown a Buddhist monastery in Irrawaddy.

Some background:

"The Burmese junta often claims it believes deeply in Buddhism and encourages the growth of the faith. It’s a claim that has the Burmese people shaking their heads in disbelief in view of the junta’s latest crackdown, on Rangoon’s Maggin Monastery." The Irrawaddy

"Why hasn't the International Criminal Court made a greater effort?" Masters inquired.

Guest: "It's so new just beginning to be tested...but it's way, way stronger than it was ten years ago going after international criminals."

"Way" is noun (substantive) meaning "a passage, or a path prepared for available travelling." In a transferred sense it can be the Milky Way, the passage of a whole galaxy in space! Oxford English Dictionary. More humbly: "What is the way home?"

"Way" is used figuratively in many idiomatic phrases, in the sense of with conscious reference to literal travelling: "to know one's way." "Will the team go all the way this year to the title game?" Or, to express it negatively: "There's no way the team will go that far," that is, it possesses not the means of getting very far, "taking a clear path" to the playoffs.

To use "way" as an adverb intensifier as did Mr. Masters' guest, (...but it's way way stronger) is to say: "It's much, much stronger." Even so, too many much's here where one much will do. "Much" as an adverb means "existing in great degree or quantity." Oxford Mini Dictionary. To use "way" for much is inadvisable, as a much more useful word already exists in a literal form providing greater force of expression: "Much." To use "way" twice, is doubly wrong.