THREE LITTLE WORDS.

Three words that the media toss around today with totally inaccurate abandon: icon, legend, and classic. Alan Thicke died today. The news calls him a TV "icon". That's odd. I thought he was just another replaceable sitcom actor who had an idiot son. It's always sad when any celebrity dies. After all we've spent time with them, watched their shows, and seen them later in life selling life insurance or reverse mortgages. But being on a semi-successful tv show does not qualify you as an icon. What's a "classic"? According to the Disney studio, any film they produce that's more than two days old is a bonafide lasting classic.  It's a Wonderful Life is a classic. Frozen is not. As far as "legend" goes, any number of vin ordinaire products and transient stars are proclaimed to be legends from cars to soup. And while many cars and yes, even some soups, are classics, most are not deserving of a term that demands quality, longevity, and undiminshed popularity. Sadly the media takes no responsibility in protecting our great language from misuse and now that we have a president elect with a vocabulary of 36 words, it's bound to get worse.