[Janice D. Soderling]

I am not complaining about words changing. Of course they do. And one generation's carelessness is the next generation's common speech.

That said, I don't have to like it and I don't. But I waved my white flag long ago when I saw I was fighting a war that was already over.

As we often see in the crits of poems here, there is a wide variety of interpretations. So benchmarks are needed.

Before there is the usual rush to throw the usual rotten tomatoes at a perceived reactionary, I reassert that I am not against inventiveness. To be inventive often gives a competitive lingual edge. Growing the budget" might an example of that. It opens to window dressing of financial statements or reports, then it is picked up by the duller ones as meaningful, and then it becomes as a much of a cliche as "the bottom line" and "the end of the day" or "military advisors".

No one is quite sure what it means, and everyone is vaguely sure of its meaning and besides it wakes up the perusers of the financial section.