Everyone excited

Have you noticed how everyone is excited about just about everything these days? It can range from a company’s hiring a new finance chief after the last one got caught sharing the profits, or a publisher naming a new third assistant obit editor, the mayor cutting the ribbon of a developer donor’s latest subsidized building, or a Hollywood star getting engaged for the fifth time this year. They are all excited. There’s a rule among flacks that every press release must quote the client, saying, “We’re excited with…”

Excitement flourishes in headlines: Here are a few topping The New York Times list of the 1,825 hits from the past 12 months: “Let’s Get Excited About Maintenance!” “French Taxman Excited by Neymar Windfall,” “Guardiola Excited About Barcelona Reunion,” “4 Trailers That Have Us Excited for 2017,” and “Afghan Family Excited Their Son Released From Guantanamo.” The Times’s archive goes back to 1851, and in August 1861, there’s one shocker, “Boston Excited.” For The New York Times to report excitement in Boston, that must be one helluva story.

Another Times headline, from June 9, 1946, asks “Who’s Excited?”

Annswer to that is easy: Everyone!

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Contact: BobSkole@aol.com