i'll take "things you might watch from the beach" for a hundred
October 23, 2002 04:10 PM

I'm delighted to hear that "sunset" is now a verb.

Not merely a verb, no - a transitive verb. It is one of a string of gentle corporate euphemisms for "dispose of". I found myself in something of a quandary today when I not only discovered this unusual part of speech, but was forced to come up with a past participle.

What is it? I went with the obvious answer, "sunset", but I think a case could be made for "sunsetted", even. That's the glory of the corporate lexicon.

And it's not even the figurative half of it. No, I have also seen people who bear no resemblance to Shel Silverstein use "gold watch" in a similar construction.

It does seem very polite to "gold watch" an old application, rather than "retire" it. Very dignified.