YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE - AT 10:42 A.M. ET:  For those who think Europeans are simply so superior to Americans.  From The Times of London:

It could be construed as a black day for the English language — but not if you work in the public sector.

Dozens of quangos and taxpayer-funded organisations have ordered a purge of common words and phrases so as not to cause offence.

Among the everyday sayings that have been quietly dropped in a bid to stamp out racism and sexism are “whiter than white”, “gentleman’s agreement”, “black mark” and “right-hand man”.

The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission has advised staff to replace the phrase “black day” with “miserable day”, according to documents released under freedom of information rules.

It gets worse:

Many institutions have urged their workforce to be mindful of “gender bias” in language. The Learning and Skills Council wants staff to “perfect” their brief rather than “master” it, while the Newcastle University has singled out the phrase “master bedroom” as being problematic.

COMMENT:  This is actually serious stuff over there. 

Oh, by the way, a quango is defined by Oxford as "a semipublic administrative body outside the civil service but with financial support from and senior appointments made by the government."  I thought you'd like to know.

The Europeans are absolutely manhandling the language.  Excuse me.  Personhandling.  I promise not to do that again.

August 24, 2009