Saturday, January 5, 2013

Congratulations on Misusing the Term Exfiltrate!



“We were successful at exfiltrating contaminants properly from the water,” you’ll inform the superintendent of schools.  She won’t be a terribly well educated woman, so she’ll simply nod ineffectually at you.

“Okay,” she’ll murmur, dismissing you.  Your use of a big word will make her assume you knew what you were talking about, which was exactly what you were going for.  But you really didn’t, and tomorrow a bunch of kids are going to die because you used exfiltrate incorrectly in a sentence, trying to make it sound like you managed to didn’t actually accomplish the goal of filtering something when what you in fact said was that you successfully removed things from a place.

Later, you’ll be sued, along with the superintendent of schools and most of her direct underlings.  You’ll be the only one to get off on a technicality since, as your improper use of words indicates, you’re not the brightest and shouldn’t be held to the same standards as other adults.

“The superintendent of schools should probably know better than to pretend she knows the meaning of words, especially when children’s safety is concerned,” the judge will declare, his mustache bristling.  Then he’ll bang his gavel and off the upper echelon of the school district’s administrative staff will go to rape jail!

Congratulations on Misusing the Term Exfiltrate!

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