Over the years, I\u2019ve gotten quite a few chuckles reminiscing about my youngest cousin Scott\u2019s purely logical reaction to an unfamiliar food that was set before him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI cannot eat that because I have NEVER eaten that before.\u201d<\/p>\n
(To his credit, Scott the successful civil engineer has outgrown that childhood logic, although it probably still bubbles to the surface now and then. \u201cI cannot design that project because I have\u2026er, I mean, how flexible is your budget?\u201d)<\/p>\n
In other words, \u201cunprecedented\u201d was bad.<\/p>\n
Now in 2026, I find myself wincing whenever a TV\/print\/podcast\/Post-it Note journalist trots out the overworked buzzword \u201cunprecedented.\u201d<\/p>\n
(X\u2019s chatbot Grok agrees the media \u201csignificantly overuses\u201d the word. Grok added that \u201cunprecedented\u201d has become a \u201clazy rhetorical crutch \u2013 dramatic hype for clicks, narrative framing or to signal gravity \u2013 rather than a precise descriptor. And, oh yeah, Elon Musk needs a raise.\u201d)<\/p>\n
\u201cUnprecedented\u201d is one of those phrases like \u201cexistential\u201d and \u201cgame changer\u201d and \u201conly time will tell\u201d that journalists suddenly, \u201corganically\u201d adopt simultaneously. I wish we could hack into their shared database and get everyone to start using, say, \u201cscrumdiddlyumptious\u201d all the time. (\u201cSources close to the massive interstate pileup say that the injuries were, um, scrumdiddlyumptious.\u201d)<\/p>\n
Whenever the Fourth Estate smells something that might be without precedent, they are embarrassingly giddy about delving into their internet resources to vindicate their mania. I miss the old days when the fact-finding involved two rural housewives chatting across the fence. (\u201cLand sakes! Did you ever hear of such a thing in all your life???\u201d)<\/p>\n
Thank heaven the Bible\u2019s account of the day-to-day existence of Adam and Eve was kept mercifully brief. I don\u2019t think the religious world would have been appreciably better off with a pompous reporter hanging around. (\u201cHumankind\u2019s first hug. Unprecedented! Humankind\u2019s first Thursday brunch. Unprecedented! A talking serpent\u2026ho-hum\u2026nothing to see here. Move along.\u201d)<\/p>\n
Breathless weathermen have made every dry spell, late frost or early daffodil an \u201cunprecedented\u201d weather \u201cevent.\u201d (\u201cSummer breeze makes me feel fine \u2013although there has never been such a phenomenon before, at least according to our records, which date all the way back to last Wednesday\u2026\u201d)<\/p>\n
A modern weather forecast will get you so revved up you don\u2019t know whether to carry a parka, an umbrella or the Revelation of St. John the Divine.<\/p>\n
Journalists continue overusing the dreaded \u201cunprecedented,\u201d but most parents outgrow the fascination with \u201cfirsts\u201d remarkably fast. \u201cBaby\u2019s first tooth! Baby\u2019s first word! Baby\u2019s first step!\u201d can quickly transition to \u201cThird child\u2019s first time overhearing Dad screaming, \u2018Why wouldn\u2019t you let me get that vasectomy when I asked for it???\u201d<\/p>\n
(I suspect that many of the people embracing \u201cunprecedented\u201d do so because it sounds more refined than the \u201cI swear this has never happened before!\u201d assurance they\u2019ve had to deliver on more than one occasion.)<\/p>\n
The biggest burr under my saddle with \u201cunprecedented\u201d is when pundits take that honorable neutral adjective and put a sinister spin on it. (\u201cThis is unprecedented! No president has ever attended a midweek National League doubleheader wearing cufflinks purchased from a salesman named Monty. Our NATO allies are on high alert.\u201d)<\/p>\n
WhewI\u2019ve worked up quite an appetite with this tirade.In case y\u2019all have leftovers to spare, it would be unprecedented for me to turn down a free meal.<\/p>\n
For that matter, a bathroom scale utilizing lunar gravity might be a real game changer\u2026<\/p>\n
\u00a92026 Danny Tyree, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.<\/p>\n