360° isn’t better than 180°…but it is more

I’ve been confronted lately with people that don’t seem to get the concept or the difference between 360° and 180°. We adults hold a dim view of the skateboarding community, but even they are bright enough to know that if someone does “a 360″ they are facing the same way they started out. Take a look at this product: the Colgate 360°.
It has funky colored and configured bristles that likely have no effect on brushing effectiveness on one side and then a tongue cleaner on the back. Apparently, you are to use the bristles to brush your teeth and then flip the device over–a full 360°–and keep brushing, because unless you “do a 180″ you’re not getting to that tongue cleaner…good thing too, cuz I figure, after one use, that thing is a germ farm.

I also heard this term misused on an ad for one of those intervention reality shows. Whoever was being intervened upon had apparently been so moved and changed by the intervention that they “did a 180! No he did better than a 180–he did a complete 360.” He should have quit while he was ahead.

Other phrases that make me shake my head are those using the adjective “jet” to describe any color other than black. Jet is a type of stone that is very black. To describe someone’s hair as having turned jet white after a shock would be just as effective as saying it turned fire engine white.

Finally, there is the local power company who urges people to be safe while digging on their property and tells them they should call in to make sure there are no power lines buried where they plan to dig. Great advice, but then they follow up the PSA with their tag line, “Don’t take power for granted!” No, do take power for granted. Granted means that it is a forgone conclusion that it is there and will always be there, so we want people to assume that there are power lines under their property unless they are told otherwise.