Prospero año nuevo, everyone, and happy birthday to Mister MRP!
An urgent missive from Frida’s Big Gay Dad:
For some strange reason, Frida’s Other BGD thinks this would be an excellent entry in your blog . . . but I think that he is the only one that believes anyone has said mistakenly “without futher adieu” when they mean “without further ado.”
Far be it from MRP to come between Frida’s two dads, and Dad Mike is certainly not the first one ever to make this mistake, but here’s the thing: an adieu is goodbye in French, an ado is a fuss. And so, the expression is “without further ado” and not “without further adieu.” Just as it is “much ado about nothing” and not “much adieu about nothing.”
It does strike MRP, however, that there would just be sometimes when you could wish someone goodbye without further adieu.
“Without further ado” must be abolished from all public speaking!! (Yes, MRP, that warrants two exclamation points.)
It’s just filler, when speakers don’t know how to wrap up their comments. But when they finish their little speech or talk or toast by saying “without further ado” they are undermining the importance of everything they just said.
The most cringe-worthy example is one I have seen way too many times and have also been a victim of myself. A special guest is being introduced, his/her credentials and awards are rattled off, other impressive biographical info, and then the introducer wraps it up with, “so without further ado, please welcome Gopher.”
So my professional background/cred is all just a bunch of “ado?” Why not just say, “but enough of that bulls#*t, let’s see if the real thing measures up to the hype.”
If presenters really understood and thought about what the expression meant, they would never use it.
Comment by Gopher — January 2, 2007 @ 1:28 pm |
Yeah, it’s sort of a fancy way of saying “blah blah blah” or “yadda yadda yadda.” What if the introducer said, “And yadda yadda yadda, please welcome Gopher”?
Comment by mightyredpen — January 7, 2007 @ 4:32 pm |
Gopher is exactly right. It is fillerthat is used thoughtlessly and reflexively. Another “like”, as if we needed one.
Comment by Harry — January 10, 2007 @ 3:06 pm |
Gopher,
I would /love/ to introduce someone someday and say “… but enough of that bulls@#t, let’s see if the real thing measures up to the hype.”
Oh, that is… too, too good.
And as an occassional public speaker myself, I would adore anyone who introduced me that way.
Comment by David — January 10, 2007 @ 5:07 pm |
I’m wondering if the more undermining thing is the listing of impressive credentials and then introducing someone named Gopher.
Comment by Frida's Big Gay Dad — January 12, 2007 @ 4:38 pm |
Who is Gopher?
Comment by Gopher — May 27, 2007 @ 10:33 pm |
I believe that, “Frida’s Big Gay Dad” was referring to Congressman Fred Grandy who also played “Gopher” on the Love Boat…
http://www.nndb.com/people/908/000024836/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0334948/
Comment by Captain Stubing — November 28, 2007 @ 12:26 am |
Yeah, there is no real definition of “ado”. It’s like “stuff”.
Introductions work best when the credentials are given first, and the name, last, as the person introduced rises for applause as they stroll to the podium, IMHO.
Like this:
“Our Secretary’s report will be given by the only one of us to travel all the way to the San Francisco office to get a pad of sticky notes when we were out, a real team player, Martha!”
Comment by Douglas (Dana) Goncz, CPS — November 7, 2009 @ 5:45 am |