Year-end honors for 2023
Al Owens
We’ve made it!
We’re at the end of 2023.
It’s time for various entities to hand out their annual awards for the year.
Time magazine’s 2023 Person of the Year was a no-doubter – Taylor Swift.
I’ll be honest. I can’t remember the last time I heard a Taylor Swift song. Or, if I’ve ever heard one to the end.
But I know a generational talent when I see one. Swift is one of those.
This year, Ms. Swift has nearly emptied Fort Knox.
On the live concert stage, her “Eras Tour” is the highest-grossing concert tour – ever.
That isn’t the only thing that’s made her a cultural phenomenon.
She’s already won 12 Grammys. She’s up for six more Grammys at the upcoming (Feb. 4) Grammy Awards show. She’s been nominated 52 times, since her first nomination back in 2008.
She’s also been nominated for a 2023 Golden Globe Award for her “Eras Tour” filmed performance.
So what if there’s been some grumbling about her choice to be Time’s most prestigious honor?
She’s earned that kind of recognition.
Besides, since Time first unveiled its annual Man of the Year back in 1927 (with Charles Lindbergh), not everybody has been pleased with every selection.
In 1939 and 1942, the head of the Soviet Union’s Communist Party – Joseph Stalin was named, and Adolph Hitler was Time’s Man of the Year in 1938.
Take heart, Uniontown! George C. Marshall earned Time’s Man of the Year honor twice; as the U.S. Army Chief of Staff in 1943, and as the U.S. Secretary of State in 1947.
Barack Obama also became Time’s Man of the Year twice – in both 2008 and 2012. That might be a little distressing to Donald Trump, who was only named Man of the Year once – in 2016.
Both men were given their honors in the years they were elected president.
(I wrote that with a sneer)
I’m told that members of “Generation Z,” (those people born between 1996-2012), have elevated the word “rizz” to Oxford University Press’s Word of the Year.
Since I’m not a member of “Generation Z” (I’m a member of the Baby Boomer Generation – 1946-1964) I had to go hunting for the definition of the word “rizz.” And why anybody would consider it to be the “Word of the Year.”
It turns out the reason why Generation Z (1996-2012), but not Millennials (born 1981-1996, or Gen Alphas (born 2015-2025) don’t tend to use the word “rizz,” is because members of the Generation Z community use it as a slang term for “charisma.” They use the “ris” part of the word charisma.
There you have it. The folks at Oxford University in England have designated a slang term as the “Word of the Year.”
I don’t know how I can control myself with that kind of, er, knowledge.
I do know that there’s another British school of higher learning – Cambridge University – with its own 2023 “Word of the Year” – “hallucinate.”
Say what?
Upon closer examination, I discovered that the specific term “hallucinate,” has something to do with artificial intelligence (AI). It’s apparently something that generates false information through AI. I’m assuming the folks at Cambridge University know more about AI-generated hallucinations than I do.
Good on them.
Fortunately, there are some Americans who name “Words of the Year.”
Merriam-Webster has its own.
This year, they’ve given the word “authentic” that honor.
What a refreshing idea. With all of that “Words of the Year” talk about “artificial intelligence,” and “charisma,” there’s still enough room for something real and actual – namely “authentic.”
Unfortunately, though, second on Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year list, is, well, “rizz.”
Yep! The non-word “rizz” has made it onto two lists.
Further down that list, the word “Deepfake,” appears.
“Deepfake” is the antithesis of the word “authentic.”
Merriam-Webster defines “deepfake” to be “an image or recording that has been convincingly altered and manipulated to misrepresent someone as doing or saying something that was not actually done or said.”
Too bad.
Al Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter, and anchor for Entertainment Tonight, and 50-year TV news and newspaper veteran. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.