Notes & Asides

Dear Bill: I’m in complete agreement with you and Ms. Kelley Dupuis (Notes & Asides, March 28). She wrote to you lamenting the “singlenounization” of the word “media,” and the apparent abolition of the word “sympathy” in favor of its cousin, “empathy.”

However, I think there is a more offensive linguistic trend lately. Have you noticed that there are no more “problems”-only “issues”? I always thought that an issue is something to be discussed or debated, while a problem is something to be solved. Now I hear people saying that they have “issues” with certain types of medications (meaning allergic reactions); or “issues” with their real- estate agent, banker, boss, etc. Who is responsible for this development, and why hasn’t that person been apprehended and flayed?

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Dear Bill: I’m in complete agreement with you and Ms. Kelley Dupuis (Notes & Asides, March 28). She wrote to you lamenting the “singlenounization” of the word “media,” and the apparent abolition of the word “sympathy” in favor of its cousin, “empathy.”

However, I think there is a more offensive linguistic trend lately. Have you noticed that there are no more “problems”-only “issues”? I always thought that an issue is something to be discussed or debated, while a problem is something to be solved. Now I hear people saying that they have “issues” with certain types of medications (meaning allergic reactions); or “issues” with their real- estate agent, banker, boss, etc. Who is responsible for this development, and why hasn’t that person been apprehended and flayed?