"Staycation" is banished from the vocabulary, hopefully for good
Filed under: Extracurriculars, Travel
Lake Superior State University has released its annual List of Banished Words, a compendium of overused, idiotic, and otherwise grating words that we're all completely sick of hearing. Most of them, culled by submissions from the public, are words that have had deep meaning wrung out of them after being flogged to death as shorthand, either by lazy journalists or shallow politicians.
Among the vocab pariahs: "Bailout," the pairing of "Wall Street" and "Main Street," and "maverick." But there's one word on the list that irks me more than any other: "staycation."
The word was bandied about the media in the early summer as a quick way of illustrating a malaise about gas prices. People weren't interested in seeing the world this year, we were told. They're taking staycations instead. Staycations, apparently, are like vacations, except you don't travel far from home, or away from home at all. Which still makes them vacations, but whatever.
When I was growing up, we just called that "budgeting." When we couldn't afford to go skiing one winter, my mom didn't give the decision a snazzy name to make it seem cool or trendy. We just did something else. What irks me most about staycations is that by giving a sensible economic solution a catchy name, we legitimized the fears that kept some people home. It was like agreeing that travel was too expensive to be done now.
Money is indeed tighter for lots of us, but that doesn't make exploring and learning impossible. There's a whole industry of travel magazines, websites, and package tour companies, and airlines designed to tell you how to haul yourself around the world for peanuts, including Budget Travel (where I was once an editor), SmarterTravel.com (piled with deals), and guide book series like Lonely Planet, Rough Guides, and Pauline Frommer's (I write for that, too). The fear that you have to stay home instead of seeing Paris is why they were created to begin with, and as bad as the economy has gotten, it's still not so bad that you can't attain your dream trips without a little saving and a little smart planning.
Here's the kind of stuff you can find if you just switch where you're getting your information. Would you believe that right now you can get round-trip airfare to Ireland, plus six nights in a B&B and a rental car, for $499 per person from the East Coast, and $615 from the West Coast? You can get round-trip airfare to Paris plus six nights in a hotel there for $699 from the East Coast, or the same package to London for $599. And right now, the major U.S. airlines are throwing fare sales that can fly you clear across the country for as little as $99 each way.
Some of us spend that amount in a few months on our cable TV bills as we staycation. Except if you go to Paris, you'll remember what you saw there for the rest of your life.
Or here's another idea: Instead of taking six trips a year, how about one good one? I know people who go to Breckenridge for a few days for a ski blowout, then the next month hit Vegas for a few days to gamble, and so on, until the middle of the year, when they're out of money and complaining that they guess they'll never see Paris. In fact, they could have.
You don't have to say no to traveling. You just may have to say no to traveling the way you used to, or to say no to luxury for now. Start by saying goodbye to "staycationing" forever.
The word was bandied about the media in the early summer as a quick way of illustrating a malaise about gas prices. People weren't interested in seeing the world this year, we were told. They're taking staycations instead. Staycations, apparently, are like vacations, except you don't travel far from home, or away from home at all. Which still makes them vacations, but whatever.
When I was growing up, we just called that "budgeting." When we couldn't afford to go skiing one winter, my mom didn't give the decision a snazzy name to make it seem cool or trendy. We just did something else. What irks me most about staycations is that by giving a sensible economic solution a catchy name, we legitimized the fears that kept some people home. It was like agreeing that travel was too expensive to be done now.
Money is indeed tighter for lots of us, but that doesn't make exploring and learning impossible. There's a whole industry of travel magazines, websites, and package tour companies, and airlines designed to tell you how to haul yourself around the world for peanuts, including Budget Travel (where I was once an editor), SmarterTravel.com (piled with deals), and guide book series like Lonely Planet, Rough Guides, and Pauline Frommer's (I write for that, too). The fear that you have to stay home instead of seeing Paris is why they were created to begin with, and as bad as the economy has gotten, it's still not so bad that you can't attain your dream trips without a little saving and a little smart planning.
Here's the kind of stuff you can find if you just switch where you're getting your information. Would you believe that right now you can get round-trip airfare to Ireland, plus six nights in a B&B and a rental car, for $499 per person from the East Coast, and $615 from the West Coast? You can get round-trip airfare to Paris plus six nights in a hotel there for $699 from the East Coast, or the same package to London for $599. And right now, the major U.S. airlines are throwing fare sales that can fly you clear across the country for as little as $99 each way.
Some of us spend that amount in a few months on our cable TV bills as we staycation. Except if you go to Paris, you'll remember what you saw there for the rest of your life.
Or here's another idea: Instead of taking six trips a year, how about one good one? I know people who go to Breckenridge for a few days for a ski blowout, then the next month hit Vegas for a few days to gamble, and so on, until the middle of the year, when they're out of money and complaining that they guess they'll never see Paris. In fact, they could have.
You don't have to say no to traveling. You just may have to say no to traveling the way you used to, or to say no to luxury for now. Start by saying goodbye to "staycationing" forever.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
1-09-2009 @ 2:28PM
Larry Herman said...
Another "non-word" the use of which should be sufficient cause for capital punishment for anyone whose first language is English is "hopefully". That collection of letters makes no sense whatsoever.
Reply
1-10-2009 @ 4:59PM
Dave said...
Yes hopefully does make sense, people just use it incorrectly.
1-09-2009 @ 2:46PM
Jen said...
Without getting all political on an article meant to be fun, these are the two words I would like to see banished from our language. Toyota and Honda. Enough said.
Reply
1-11-2009 @ 12:03AM
Toria said...
What have you got against Honda and Toyota? I'm just curious. I love my Honda Civic and Honda CRV. I could be a millionaire and I'd still buy a Honda.
1-09-2009 @ 6:02PM
Jim said...
Right on!!!! I am sick of Americans sending money to Japan....you know, the ones that bombed Pearl Harbor in their Mitsubishi planes? Americans are losing jobs, their homes and the American big three is about to be changed forever. Although they caused that themselves by outsourcing our jobs to other countries. And I can't belieive that elected officals are voting against American companies to save their Japanese car factories in their states. Which by the way, except for one that I know of in Ca. are mostly in southern states where they are underpaid because of the bad job market that Bush created. I am a American born IBEW electrician and I've personally seen and picketed jobs that so called Americans (I call them greedy traitors) have Mexican illegals working on that bad mouth our country and people and send most of the money they make to Mexico while they camp out next to our once clean streams and pollute them. Is that what the greedy republicans and business owners call stimulation of the economy and being loyal American citizens? When Nikes used to cost 9.00 a pair to make including AMERICAN Union labor, we were paying 45.00 a pair. Now they are made in China for pennies on the dollar and cost 3 times as much. I guess when it trickles down it will be ok..........NOT! When have you seen the trickle down effect work? And how do they expect the economy to resurge if they keep outsourcing more and more jobs so they can reap immoral sinful amounts of cash pay and bonuses. Can they take it to hell with them? I think it will stay in the offshore accounts that they use to avoid paying taxes on. Sorry for the rant ,but ya got me going LOL Once again....RIGHT ON!
1-09-2009 @ 6:44PM
undrgrndgirl said...
you do realize that both honda and toyota have manufacturing presence in the united states, right??
Toyota
Toyota has a large presence in the United States with five major assembly plants in Huntsville, Alabama; Georgetown, Kentucky; Princeton, Indiana; San Antonio, Texas; Buffalo, West Virginia; and a new one being built in Blue Springs, Mississippi. Toyota also has a joint-venture operation with General Motors at New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI), in Fremont, California, which began in 1984, and with Subaru at Subaru of Indiana Automotive, Inc. (SIA), in Lafayette, Indiana, which started in 2006. Production on a new manufacturing plant in Tupelo, Mississippi is scheduled for completion in 2010. - wikipedia
Honda:
United States: North American Facilities (partial) List and description
Lincoln, Alabama — Odyssey, Pilot, V6 engines
East Liberty, Ohio — Civic Sedan/Coupe/GX, Element, CR-V
Marysville, Ohio — Auto — Accord Sedan/Coupe, Acura TL, Acura RDX,
Marysville, Ohio — Motorcycle — Gold Wing 1800, Valkyrie Rune, VTX 1300/1800, Shadow 1100, motorcycle engines
Anna, Ohio — Engines
Raymond, Ohio — Vehicle R&D
Indian Lake, Ohio — Automatic transmissions
Torrance, California — Vehicle R&D/design
Swepsonville, North Carolina — General purpose engines, Walk-behind lawn mowers, Snow blowers, String trimmers, Water pumps, and Tillers
Greensboro, North Carolina — HondaJet
Greensburg, Indiana — Civic Sedan
Timmonsville, South Carolina — All-terrain vehicles (ATVs) and personal watercraft (PWCs) — Four Trax Recon, Four Trax Foreman, Four Trax Rancher, Four Trax Rincon, Four Trax Rubicon, Sportrax 400EX/250EX, AquaTrax F-12/12X
Tallapoosa, Georgia — Automatic transmissions
- wikipedia
so, you'd like your fellow americans to lose their jobs because they work for toyota and honda...gee how selfish of you.
1-09-2009 @ 6:48PM
Steve said...
I live and worked in Detroit. The big three had no problem buying foriegn labor. So many engines and transmissions made in Mexico, China, Korea and the Phillipines where they get low wages, and no regulation.
1-09-2009 @ 11:14PM
doug said...
how about "enough said"?
1-09-2009 @ 2:59PM
Kat said...
How about "celeb" and "chicest"? How about celebrity babble in general?
Reply
1-09-2009 @ 3:00PM
KC said...
I'm happy that you can dig up enough to "haul yourself around the world for peanuts" because we "little people" who don't have a six figure income (we're actually about 15K shy of one) can't even afford to visit family that live in the same state! It makes me want to vomit that you feel that the media has affected the travel market by "scaring" folks into thinking they can't afford to, while in reality it's the fact that we are having to pay higher & higher property taxes, skyrocketing utility bills, buying only needed groceries, making do with last year's wardrobe & only "traveling" when necessary & the travel I'm talking about is driving to the store or to doctor appointments. How wonderful it must be for those who can take advantage of the cheaper airfares & travel packages to the western Europe for those proverbial "peanuts" while most of us can't even call our stay at home vacations "staycations" because we're often hustling to bring in more work or fixing up or cleaning our abodes. I'd love to have a mere $40 to pay for the gas & tolls to go spend time with my parents that are a mere 100 miles away & to be able to save up a few hundred bucks to fly down to Florida from New Jersey to visit my sister & family would be a sort of dream come true. The media hasn't scared me from traveling, it's the government (state & federal share in this equally) that have done a fine job of making it financially impossible. No matter how much saving & smart planning we do, we simply cannot afford to travel anywhere at this time unless we both take on a second job & then we won't have the time... This little article really irked me & I'm curious to know how others feel when they read that to the writer, Jason Cochran, $699 is basically pocket change & can be spent of a fabulous trip to Ireland if only we stop wasting our precious resources on those frivolous trips to Breckenridge & Las Vegas? Anyone else doing a "face-palm" (covering one's face with their hand) over the audacity of this writer's beliefs? I'm seriously perplexed by his reasoning of why nobody is traveling is due to the fact that the media "scared us." Wake up & smell your 401K or IRA burning Jason. Most of us are staying put because we are responsible adults & need to pay the prices of the ever rising cost of living (cable bills included!)
Reply
1-09-2009 @ 3:10PM
Katie said...
KC - Would you email me? My email is thesaghys@aol.com. I am an average person like yourself.
1-09-2009 @ 4:10PM
HardCoreDEMOCRAT said...
You are a douchebag!!! The MEDIA has scared us into this downward spiral.Do you think everyone would hvae pulled their money out of the banks making them lose biions in deposits if it hadn't been for the media elevating everyone's fears?Gas prices were spurred on by the MEDIA.Hyping every analyst that said prices were gonna go way higher and hiding any that said they were way over priced? PEople bought into that and bought into the futures market a over the world and caused price to skyrocket.Where were you living fool?The MEDIA caused most all of it besides the rules changes that the Senate put in place to make banks take down right offs when housing prices plummet.That caused a lot of the banks losses but You aso have to see the MEDIA are the ones that hyped the Prices of houses in the first place.The MEDIA convinced peopel they needed to buy buy buy now when prices were aready doube or triple.Who cares if you can't afford it buy buy buy ook at all these hybrid oans you can get a $500K house for only $500 dollars a month WOW do it do it do it!!!! You are freakin naive or just a MEDIA PUPPET in control like the incoming PREZ BO.You or any sane person coud see the MEDIA helped him tremendously.THEY pushed the believe(brainwashing) that he was all good all powerful and you stupid a$$clowns bought it.The MEDIA is the root of all evils. Your buddies!!!!!
1-09-2009 @ 5:14PM
JM said...
KC -
You seriously are making $85,000 a year and cannot afford the $40 to visit your parents? I think you are either being a little over-dramatic, or are being really irresponsible with your money (example: cable bill is not a "cost of living" - it is a luxury IF you can afford to have it).
I can understand not agreeing with the tone of the article, but you could really afford to lighten up a bit. Getting so worked up is going to give you a heart attack - and apparently a hospital bill is something you cannot afford.
1-09-2009 @ 4:09PM
Belle said...
Cable, specifically, and TV in general, are not necessities. If this is your choice of how to spend money do not blame anyone else for not having money to travel. My cable bill is about $50/month because we don't waste time money on premium channels. Waiting an extra month or two to see a movie is not really an imposition. PS: The same goes for overpriced cell phones and plans. My cell phone cost about $10 and I spend about $25/month for minutes and I've never had a dropped call. I do not need to be able to take pictures with my phone because I don't really mind having a separate device for this purpose and I don't care if my camera, phone or TV are older models. They work fine and by not buying things as soon as they come on the market, not only do you get it cheaper, but you've had time to find out what's really good and what is garbage or else for the bugs to be cleared out. And don't forget, mailing a handwritten letter only costs 42 cents! We all choose where to spend our money and how we spend our time.
1-09-2009 @ 4:13PM
chi said...
Very well said! The unemployment in my county is 12%, the neighboring one 10% and I'm one of them. I've been out of work for so long I'm out of unemployment. This are no 'extras' to cut out. I can't afford magazines except at the library when I feel I have enough gas to use to get there. There's no cable out here anyway but because of that I don't have the option of any of the communication packages that might lower my overall bills. Travel-HA! A big travel day is driving 40 minutes, maybe every other month, to Walmart for money saving.
1-09-2009 @ 9:15PM
ceata said...
KC...please tell us that your inability to scrounge up $40 for gas and tolls from 85K is because you are supporting 14 special needs children or you are running an equine sanctuary for abused horses.
1-09-2009 @ 5:02PM
Nemo1 said...
Hardcoredemocrat is not very smart. It wasn't the media that's asking for a 700 billion bailout, its not the media that have a unprecidented number of foreclosures on housing loans, not the media that bundled those loans into securities that are now worthless, not the media thats tightened lending till even folks with good credit can't get a loan for a car. Happy talk does not solve real problems, doofus, and this economy is a REAL problem. See if happy talk will feed your kids when you've lost your job.
1-09-2009 @ 3:06PM
John said...
Have you ever noticed how many people start almost every sentence with the word "Basically"? Well, basically, I wish they would stop!
Reply
1-09-2009 @ 3:07PM
CJ said...
To: KC
Hooray for you! I couldn't have possibly expressed this any better if I had tried. Thanks for expressing the opinions of the real America.
Reply
1-09-2009 @ 3:08PM
gary kissam said...
we have a honda plant in s.c.and toya\ota also has manufacturing plants in the us in 2008 toyota and general motors sold almost the same amount of vehicles g.m lost almost a billion dollars toyoya made close to 800 million they are not in the stranglehold of unions they just run a smarter and tighter operation the us automakers need to take a closer look at how nissan and the rest do business maybe hire some of their execs..
Reply