Top ten "buzzwords" of 2008

For this week's top ten, I decided to look at the top ten buzzwords of the year so far according to TIME magazine.... Yes these are apparently going to be the words on the tips of everybody's tongues for the next few months or so although how successful they'll actually be, I'm not so sure! I think maybe you should decide for yourself;

1. COUGAR: An older woman who romantically pursues younger men. This one's funny. Imagine someone calling you a Cougar because you have a toy boy! Nice!

2. SURGE: Used to describe the influx of American troops into Iraq in January e.g. "Is the surge working?". Nothing really to say about this one.

3. PREVIVOR: Someone who doesn't have cancer but does have pre-cancerous cells or a genetic mutation which increases the risk of developing it: a pre-survivor. I'm not really sure how they came up with this one! I can't really imagine going into a hospital and a doctor calling you a 'previvor'.

4. POPCORN LUNG: A rare, life-threatening lung disease that can be caused by inhaling a chemical used in butter flavoring. Watch out for that popcorn people! And you thought it was just an innocent cinema snack!

5. COLBERT BUMP: Similar to the Oprah effect on book sales, the boost in popularity ratings a political candidate gets after appearing on The Colbert Report (some American chat show, I'm guessing!) I don't think this one's ever going to catch on here! The 'Jonathon Ross Bump' doesn't quite have the same ring to it!

6. GRASS STATION: Used to describe the newer alternatives to today's fossil fueled petrol (or if you're in America, gas) station. These include ethanol, biofuels and apparently even grass! Imagine saying ' I'm just nipping to the grass station, dear!' Umm no!

7. LOCAVORE: The word describes the growing trend of eating fresh, locally grown ingredients. Where the actual word comes from I don't have a clue! Anyone know?! And in what context would you use it? 'Are you a Locavore?!' :S

8. BACN: No it's nothing to do with the pig product! The term describes news alerts and other e-mails we sign up for but never actually get around to reading! This one could actually work, when you think about spam - it's a similar idea which caught on quite quickly.

9. VAJAYJAY: This word is used as an alternative to vagina. Apparantly it was made popular in Grey's Anatomy because the network didn't want to use the real word. Yeah, because I'm sure that really worked in a serious medical drama!

10. Freegan: A combination of the words "free" and "vegan," the term describes an anti-consumer who shuns mainstream consumerism and even 'Dumpster dives' for clothing and other essentials! Classy! Basically this just refers to the people that are too tight to buy things themselves!

So there you have the top ten buzzwords of the year! Check out some of the other top tens at the Time Website: http://http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/top10/0,30576,1686204,00.html So Are you going to be dropping "Popcorn lung" or "Bacn" into conversation anytime soon? Hmm, me neither!