Not Clever

And now for something completely reprehensible:


This ad ran in the Star Tribune on Sunday. It was a full page, but I have cropped out the lower half with the name of the Mediterranean resort that paid for it.

This is one of those examples where I "get" what the copywriter was saying (yadda yadda, when you get there it'll just be you and people of your class — in addition to the native-born serving people, of course — but the pricing is all-inclusive).

That doesn't mean I don't want to metaphorically smash them and their client with a heavy object for using the word "inclusive" this way, let alone for running a business like this in the first place.

Lots of negative energy being expended right now. Time to stop.

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The headline says "Not Clever," but in one sense this ad is clever. According to etymonline.com, the word "clever" originally meant "handy, dexterous" and came from "cliver" (East Anglian dialect), which meant  "expert at seizing." The kind of folks portrayed in this ad are indeed expert at seizing resources and accruing abundance for themselves at the expense of others and the Earth.