Are You Crazy Enough to Be a Locavore?

It’s a busy time in the dictionary world, what with all of the newly announced words that we’ve adopted into the American lexicon–and to which those grand-daddies of word usage have given their official nod. Some have even been crowned “word of the year.”

Like w00t (that’s w-zero-zero-t), “a hybrid of letters and numbers used by gamers as an exclamation of happiness of triumph,” as Merriam-Webster defines it. The ole M-W has just announced that w00t is the word of the year. (Truth is, I prefer 2006′s pick–truthiness.)

Over at the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary: Sixth Edition, they’ve unveiled some words that, like, omigod, I’m sure you use all the time but, like, your fricking mom was always telling you not to use, and you were just, like, “That’s so bogus.” Yes, omigod (channelling Moon Unit Zappa’s “Valley Girl”), fricking and bogus are all officially recognized words now. So is carbon-neutral.

Speaking of “green words,” another Oxford dictionary, The New Oxford American Dictionary, has announced its word of the year–locavore (var. localvore). This word means someone who eats only food that he or she can get locally–sort of like the idea behind the 100-mile diet.

It’s an interesting concept, only eating items available locally, but I’m not sure it’s doable in the suburbs where I live. Off the top of my head I can think of a local dairy farm, orchard and bakery (but it gets its flour and supplies from elsewhere) where I can go to get food staples, but given that it’s winter, I think I’m pretty much screwed in finding fresh local vegetables.

To me being a true locavore, you’ve got to live in a place where the European way of shopping is commonplace. That is you walk to one store for your bread, another store for your cheese, another for your butchered meats and so on.

Where I live, though, to be a true locavore, I would have to do a lot of driving, and I’m sure it would be fricking expensive.