Eye-Sore

"We're still tied up in the word and the number and that old hierarchy. The image was there before the word, and we are really going very fuddy-duddy."

—faculty member, in discussion of curriculum and standards, criticizing the emphasis on improving student writing, analytical reasoning, and quantitative skills

Huh?

Can't remember when I last heard the term, "fuddy-duddy." Come to think of it, anyone old enough to use it without irony must have become one himself.

Dude! It's the twenty-first century. Time to put those bell bottoms out for the tag sale.

Not quite sure why, if the image was there before the word, it is regressive to emphasize the latter. Then again, if you don't value logical reasoning . . . And as for that "number" stuff: try making sense of the financial crisis or healthcare reform without it.