What do you get when you combine a joke with a rhetorical question?

Our language is constantly changing. New words are added, other words deleted. The gender issue has made us aware of how language can change our perceptions. The primary purpose of any language is to communicate. Does it really matter if you dangle a participle? Will anyone care if you split an infinitive?

Star Trek hurled us into space in 1966 when Gene Roddenberry, the show’s creator, began the series with the famous opening that stated “to boldly go where no man has gone before.” Grammarians, appalled at the split infinitive, said the line should read “to go boldly where no man has gone before.”

However, in 1966, the women’s liberation movement was in full swing and more people took offense at the word “man” and its implied sexism. Despite the explanation that “man” referred to the human race, when “Star Trek: The Next Generation” was aired in 1987 (yes, it took that long) the more politically correct line stated “to boldly go where no one has gone before.”

Furthermore, it is not only perfectly acceptable to end a sentence in a preposition, feel free to begin a sentence with a conjunction. The Romans did it all the time (et tu, Brute?) and just let your adverbs fall where they may.

Speaking of Romans, according to the Associated Press Stylebook, Roman numerals will no longer be used in reference to the Super Bowl. However, Roman numerals will still be used on clocks (not the digital ones) and will still follow the names of kings (King George III). But, I digress. Back to English.

Plurals do not make any sense at all. For instance, take the word “goose.” The plural of goose is geese, so shouldn’t the plural of moose be meese? We all know the plural of mouse is mice, so shouldn’t the plural for house be hice? Should a group of squid be called a squad?

The computer has added its share of new words: teleprocessing, silicon, and modem, along with nerds and geeks. The nerds and geeks then added the acronyms, CPU (central processing unit) BMP (bitmap) and ATM (asynchronous transfer mode or the more familiar automatic teller machine).

Social media is responsible for the addition of Airbnb and gig economy. Gig workers are defined as people who work temporary jobs like independent contractors or freelancers, that includes Uber drivers, artists, and me!

The computer is all about speed. There is no longer time for the elegance of cursive writing. There is no time to write complete sentences. In the world of Tweets, Facebook and SnapChat, the use of symbols and pictures are used to communicate. Words are in danger of becoming extinct.

For instance, B4N means bye for now. BFF is best friends forever and warning, LOL no longer means “lots of love.”

Merriam-Webster has now defined the symbol @ as a word and even used it in a sentence. On social media a person can “tag” someone by using the symbol @ before their name. If you do not wish to be tagged in a controversial conversation, you might write “don’t @ me.”

We no longer use antiquated words like thee, thy, and thou. Every century or so we need to shrug off obsolete rules that prevent us from efficient communication. We need “to boldly go where no one has gone before.”

I’m reminded of an old joke: The past, the present, and the future walked into a bar …

It was tense.