Ay Caramba!

Lately, the issue of clear and plain writing has been catching my attention. The most hilarious advocates of understandable communication have been the toreadors over at Fight the Bull. These fine people devised a plug-in called Bullfighter that automatically checks your Word document or PowerPoint presentation for the kind of language that scores high on your Bullshit Bingo card. You know, like 'synergy', 'pushing the envelope' and 'value-added'.
But let's face it, the funniest people are always those who are unintentionally funny. Which is why I called the matadors' attention to WhiteSmoke, a plug-in that seems to do the exact opposite of Bullfighter: it adds "meaning-free" adjectives to your text, and replaces simple, mundane words like "buy" with pompous synonyms like "purchase".
I installed both plug-ins, fearing the universe would implode as a result. Luckily, it didn't, and I was able to tell the bullfighters about it, who promptly posted a blog entry mentioning it (and me (yay)), followed by a detailed review of a head-to-head competition between the plug-ins.