It is a brain aching feeling of knowing that the word is stuck right there. You learnt it somewhere, from a particularly cerebral book, from the cereal label, or from your grandfather when he stubbed his toe and wanted to swear but then realised in time that you were there. Incidentally, my grandfather did teach me the F word, when a rubberband twanged back on his finger. However, being a young and innocent child back then, I thought he was invoking the Far King, who lived in a remote corner of Hell. But that is another story.

Back to the tip-of-the-tongue nonsense. I am no stranger to feeling clumsy with the vocabulary of a language that I grew up speaking. But clumsiness must not be mistaken for laziness or ovine tendencies. Those are the feelings that reduce otherwise very intelligent people to reuse words that are so tired out they should be sent to a retirement home. An example is "rant". I have seen too many tags on blogs or titles that say "A rant" or "Rants". A related misdemenour is "random thoughts" or "random musings". There was once a time when these phrases evoked an image of a solitary, brooding intellectual. Now any booger can muse or rant. This is why I have tagged this tirade as "vociferations". Just to be original.

However, these people pale in comparison to Paris Hilton, and the people who follow her. "That's hot" and "Juicy" don't MEAN anything. They are just phrases that fly out of her actually quite smart mind in her attempt to be bimbo and milk the rest of us of more money. Ladies and gentlemen, can't you feel her little chihuahua biting your buttocks? Why are so many peopel imitating her? Why would you want to be Paris Hilton? (besides the money. I understand that part) Could someone please tell me before I need to be locked in a youth asylum from wondering.

And lastly, what's up with the Singaporean press and parliament calling everyone below the age of 85 a "youngster"? Firstly, its archaic Cockney, and so should not even be used. It's right up there with "thou shalt behave thyself, or I wilst send lightning to split the ground and riccochet into thy arsehole". Secondly, it's a condescending term that shows exactly how little respect the precious "resource" of the country is given. But, what really takes the cake is how people my age start insulting themseleves (fine, insult yourself if you want, but don't insult me) and saying "youngsters these days are rebellious and don't think about the future." Actually, I think that in any other circumstance, they would phrase it more precisely, except that the Singaporean usage of "youngster" is so pervasive that even the people who are being insulted insult themselves. Look, if you must insult yourself, it's better to use the archaic Cockney companion of "tiddler". Like, "He's such a tiddler, he can't walkt properly and he just shat on a turtle."

I'm done.