As usual, apprecite the energy and effort you put into your newsletters. I really do think of myself as a lazy person, yet I can't resist opening them when they arrive, which is an awfully good sign for their merit. I thus have one of the requirements you need for a first reader.
Trying to make head or tail of the "use" distinction....Use, of course, does not have to be pejorative. We are often forced to defend something's usefulness, after all. There is useful over here, excrescence over there.
Taking the cases of coffee and cake, where we substitute "drink" and "eat" for a supposedly less frank "use", about the only difference I can see is that "drink" and "eat" are more specific. They are subsets of use. So I think the argument is rather the opposite of what the young people are proposing. Euphemisms are typically more general, not more specific. I do not think to say that one uses coffee is really to get more to the bottom of what one is doing. Now, to cite the caffeine and not the coffee, if that is ones motivation for the use, certainly would add a level of directness.
I think it usually starts as a fashion statement (or attempt to keep up with friends) -- but then like all addictions it grows on you. Thanks for a good question!
As usual, apprecite the energy and effort you put into your newsletters. I really do think of myself as a lazy person, yet I can't resist opening them when they arrive, which is an awfully good sign for their merit. I thus have one of the requirements you need for a first reader.
Trying to make head or tail of the "use" distinction....Use, of course, does not have to be pejorative. We are often forced to defend something's usefulness, after all. There is useful over here, excrescence over there.
Taking the cases of coffee and cake, where we substitute "drink" and "eat" for a supposedly less frank "use", about the only difference I can see is that "drink" and "eat" are more specific. They are subsets of use. So I think the argument is rather the opposite of what the young people are proposing. Euphemisms are typically more general, not more specific. I do not think to say that one uses coffee is really to get more to the bottom of what one is doing. Now, to cite the caffeine and not the coffee, if that is ones motivation for the use, certainly would add a level of directness.
So, is smoking an addiction or a fashion statement?
I think it usually starts as a fashion statement (or attempt to keep up with friends) -- but then like all addictions it grows on you. Thanks for a good question!