Marathon Pundit: Repost: Lake Superior State University--home of the Banished Words list

Friday, December 31, 2010

Repost: Lake Superior State University--home of the Banished Words list

Last summer I visited Michigan's Upper Peninsula and Sault Ste. Marie, home of Lake Superior State University, which released its annual list of banished words this morning. Below follows a repost from my Upper Peninsula Upventure Series.

While in Saulte Ste. Marie, I thought I'd take a look at "old" New Fort Brady.

Click on any image to make it larger.

Michigan's smallest public college, at 3,300 students, is Sault Ste. Marie's Lake Superior State University. Although it does have a NCAA Division I sports program, men's hockey.

Originally a branch of what is now Michigan Tech that opened in 1946, Lake Superior State traces its beginnings to New Fort Brady--the old fort was closer to the St. Mary's River. After World War II, the military figured that an attack from Canada was very unlikely--it donated the fort's buildings and land to the state of Michigan. However, during world wars, the fort hummed with troops--German sabotage against the Soo Locks would have had a devastating effect on our economy--and our war effort.

On the upper left is LSSU's administration building, which was the Quartermaster's Building at New Fort Brady. On the upper right is Brady Hall, a dormitory, it was once a barracks. Over on the lower left is the Fletcher Center, an university office building. When it was part of the fort, the building shelter's the mules of the base. If the LSSU bureaucrats are like some of ones I dealt with when I was in college, I'm sure more than a few students are wondering when the mules are moving out.

Lake Superior State has one claim to international fame. Each year in compiles the banished words list, which is stuffed with hackneyed, contrived, or just plain annoying words. "Carbon footprint, "green" (not the color, but its use as an environmental label), "maverick," "first dude," and "bailout" were among this year's additions.