There's apparently a huge controversy about the White House talking to the NEA. I'm not that interested, so I just skimmed the article , but something kept driving me crazy. Quotes from the transcript:

The actual issue aside, it is appalling to me that people can be high up in government (these are "asks" that the White House people had for the NEA people) and not know basic English grammar! I'm not talking semi-colons here, just basic parts of speech.

Is there a universe somewhere where "some specific asks" makes sense? It's not even easy to say! Where's the emoticon for tearing your hair out?

PJ

Language is fluid. I just did a google search and came across a few pages where people used the word "ask" as a noun meaning request or question. Interestingly enough, in one it appeared that it was nonprofit fundraising jargon--something NEA people would definitely understand! I doubt that it's in Webster's yet, but give it a few more years.

And this will sound like a bit of a non sequitur, but I bought my daughter a French-English dictionary last year and I couldn't help laughing at the number of words that weren't in my French-English dictionary from thirty years ago, because they hadn't been invented yet.

Oh, and on another page they were talking about having an "ask" for your Senator or Representative. So maybe it's Capitol Hill (Washington DC) jargon instead.

Every group has its own jargon. I've started selling used books on Amazon.com and reading their seller discussions to learn more about it. I get a kick out of their references comparing "the river" (Amazon) and "the bay" (Ebay).

And just try asking someone who is not into fanfic to define "canon" and "fanon."

Well, thank you, Cookiesmom. I had certainly never come across this particular instance of creative grammar before.

Ann

Well, jargon is a better explanation than rock stupidity, so... thanks for the explanation, cookiesmom.

It still irritates me, though.

PJ

Yeah, that's just what we need to add to the bunch, 'creative' grammar, along with creative spelling and math.

Tara