THE WASH OF NOSTALGIA

If there's one thing I really miss it's tidal waves. In the 70s, all you ever heard about was tidal waves. Everything was tidal wave this and tidal wave that. Without fail, every news bulletin you saw had a tidal wave just breezing past the camera, the inhabitants of Hawaii or Brighton being swept away or scrambling up one of those high storm walls, trying to get the heck out of the way of that thing.

These days it's all about the tsunami. Nobody cares about lowly old tidal wave anymore. He's passé, out of fashion. The tidal wave has missed the boat. That ship has sailed. Tsunami is the sexy Asian equivalent of the tidal wave, all kung fu moves and Eastern philosophy. Tidal wave just can’t compete with that. He's a relic from a simpler time.

I think what we have here is what students of language call a sea change.