Use of the word "Harvest"

[Couzer]

Ha! I use CONGRATS all the time!!!

[SunDevil]

in todays pc environment it is best not to offend anyone.

[CouesWhitetail]

Ha! I use CONGRATS all the time!!!

 

 

Lol! I find I type it and then usually go back and use the full word because congrats seems a little ugly since it ends in "rats"....it's funny what sets people off. I am suprised no one mentioned "pics" for "pictures". I type that all the time...nice pics!

 

And if I am posting a reply from my phone I find I use texting language more (like "u" for "you" and such). I think our world just keeps getting more and more informal in terms of communication. Sometimes I like it, sometimes it drives me batty (is batty a word Bill?)!

[azslim]

I use "congrats" because I can't spell congrad congrati congrag ....the whole thing....

[308Nut]

Some dictionary definitions of harvest include gathering fish, deer etc....It is not just a term used for crops.

 

I use the word, euphamism, slang or whatever you wish to call it.....'harvest' all the time. When we go to the grocery store to get our (tags as you in Arizona call them) what we call 'harvest tickets' I assume to have filled that (tag) meens to have 'harvested' our game. Game here is a resource to be 'harvested' and eaten. To harvest a moose or a caribou we have to have killed them. In the end, we kill it, notch our 'harvest ticket', skin it, bone it, bag it, transport it, proccess it, wrap it, freeze it, thaw it, cook it and eat it. Yummy!

 

Call it what you want. Harvest is just a descriptive word that brings to mind not just the kill, but the whole surrounding activities accossiated with the 'kill'. To hear someone say "I iklled a deer" brings to my mind a dead deer with a bloody hole in it and little else. I hear someone say "I harvested a deer" it brings to my mind the complete proccess. I guess I have a broad minded view.

 

This is a personal choice. To each his own. I choose to use the words kill, harvest, took, collected etc....Dont fault me. I wont fault you.

 

I voted for the 3rd option just so you know.

[billrquimby]

Yes, Amanda. "Batty" is a word. It won't be long, though, before someone replaces it with "bty."

 

Bill Quimby

[Pine Donkey]

Our wild game animals are a natural resource that is managed through sound conservations practices (ideally). One of the tools of management is to HARVEST animals. How do we harvest them, we KILL them.

 

Harvest is a conservation term, killing is a hunting term. I use both depending on the context of the conversation. What I do not do is attemp to make some tree huggin vegan fell better by hiding, sugar coating, or makeing PC comments. I have a passion for harvesting, killing, and eating wild animals. If someone has a problem with that; tough!

[SirRoyal]

Its so long and most don't spell it right CONGRADULATIONS!!! So Congrats on a great kill!!!

[Rag Horn]

Dont fault me. I wont fault you.

 

 

 

agreed

[Coues Sniper]

Dont fault me. I wont fault you.

 

 

 

agreed

Amen

[kninebirddog]

 

Definition of HARVEST

1 : the season for gathering in agricultural crops 2 : the act or process of gathering in a crop 3 a : a mature crop (as of grain or fruit) : yield b : the quantity of a natural product gathered in a single season <deer harvest> <ice harvest> 4 : an accumulated store or productive result <a harvest of revenue>

[billrquimby]

I wanted to write a rebuttal that would make everyone agree with my thesis that "harvest" is a politically correct word foisted upon us by late 20th-century wildlife managers who viewed us as mere "tools" of their profession

 

(Well, I refuse to be anyone's tool. I hunt because I must, and not because I want to be part of some bureaucracy's grand management scheme.)

 

Then I realized I'd already lost the debate. Only four others who took the poll at the top of this thread agreed with me. Before I slink away in defeat, though, I urge all of you who see nothing wrong with hunters saying they "harvest" animals to read this excerpt from George Carlin’s "Explicit Language" CD:

 

Bill Quimby

 

 

"I don't like words that hide the truth. I don't like words that conceal reality. I don't like euphemisms, or euphemistic language. And American English is loaded with euphemisms. 'Cause Americans have a lot of trouble dealing with reality. Americans have trouble facing the truth, so they invent the kind of a soft language to protect themselves from it, and it gets worse with every generation. For some reason, it just keeps getting worse.

 

"I'll give you an example of that. There's a condition in combat. Most people know about it. It's when a fighting person's nervous system has been stressed to its absolute peak and maximum. The nervous system has either snapped or is about to snap. In the first world war, that condition was called shell shock. Simple, honest, direct language. Two syllables, shell shock. Almost sounds like the guns themselves.

 

"That was seventy years ago. Then a whole generation went by and the second world war came along and very same combat condition was called battle fatigue. Four syllables now. Takes a little longer to say. Doesn't seem to hurt as much. Fatigue is a nicer word than shock. Shell shock! Battle fatigue. Then we had the war in Korea, 1950. Madison avenue was riding high by that time, and the very same combat condition was called operational exhaustion. Hey, were up to eight syllables now! And the humanity has been squeezed completely out of the phrase. It's totally sterile now. Operational exhaustion. Sounds like something that might happen to your car.

 

"Then of course, came the war in Viet Nam, which has only been over for about sixteen or seventeen years, and thanks to the lies and deceits surrounding that war, I guess it's no surprise that the very same condition was called post-traumatic stress disorder. Still eight syllables, but we've added a hyphen! And the pain is completely buried under jargon. Post-traumatic stress disorder. I'll bet you if we'd of still been calling it shell shock, some of those Viet Nam veterans might have gotten the attention they needed at the time. I'll betcha. I'll betcha.

 

"But. But, it didn't happen, and one of the reasons. One of the reasons is because we were using that soft language. That language that takes the life out of life. And it is a function of time. It does keep getting worse.

 

"I'll give you another example. Sometime during my life. Sometime during my life, toilet paper became bathroom tissue. I wasn't notified of this. No one asked me if I agreed with it. It just happened. Toilet paper became bathroom tissue. Sneakers became running shoes. False teeth became dental appliances. Medicine became medication. Information became directory assistance. The dump became the landfill. Car crashes became automobile accidents. Partly cloudy bacame partly sunny. Motels became motor lodges. House trailers became mobile homes. Used cars became previously owned transportation. Room service became guest-room dining. And constipation became occasional irregularity.

 

"When I was a little kid, if I got sick they wanted me to go to the hospital and see a doctor. Now they want me to go to a health maintenance organization...or a wellness center to consult a healthcare delivery professional. Poor people used to live in slums. Now the economically disadvantaged occupy substandard housing in the inner cities. And they're broke! They're broke! They don't have a negative cash-flow position. They're f###ing broke! Cause a lot of them were fired. You know, fired. Management wanted to curtail redundancies in the human resources area, so many people are no longer viable members of the workforce.

 

"Smug, greedy, well-fed white people have invented a language to conceal their sins. It's as simple as that. The CIA doesn't kill anybody anymore, they neutralize people...or they depopulate the area. The government doesn't lie, it engages in disinformation. The pentagon actually measures nuclear radiation in something they call sunshine units. Israeli murderers are called commandos. Arab commandos are called terrorists. Contra killers are called freedom fighters. Well, if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight?

 

"They never mention that part of it to us, do they? Never mention that part of it.

 

"And...and some of this stuff is just silly, we all know that, like on the airlines, they say want to pre-board? Well, what the heck is pre-board, what does that mean? To get on before you get on? They say they're going to pre-board those passengers in need of special assistance. Cripples! Simple honest direct language.

 

"There is no shame attached to the word cripple that I can find in any dictionary. No shame attached to it, in fact it's a word used in bible translations. Jesus healed the cripples. Doesn't take seven words to describe that condition. But we don't have any cripples in this country anymore. We have The physically challenged. Is that a grotesque enough evasion for you? How about differently abled. I've heard them called that.

 

"Differently abled! You can't even call these people handicapped anymore. They'll say, "Were not handicapped. Were handicapable!" These poor people have been bullshitted by the system into believing that if you change the name of the condition, somehow you'll change the condition. Well, hey cousin, ppsssspptttttt. Doesn't happen. Doesn't happen.

 

"We have no more deaf people in this country, hearing impaired. No one is blind anymore, partially sighted or visually impaired. We have no more stupid people. Everyone has a learning disorder...or he's minimally exceptional. How would you like to be told that about your child? "He's minimally exceptional." "Oohh, thank God for that." Psychologists actually have started calling ugly people, those with severe appearance deficits. It's getting so bad, that any day now I expect to hear a rape victim referred to as an unwilling sperm recipient.

 

"And we have no more old people in this country. No more old people. We shipped them all away, and we brought in these senior citizens. Isn't that a typically American twentieth century phrase? Bloodless, lifeless, no pulse in one of them. A senior citizen. But I've accepted that one, I've come to terms with it. I know it's to stay. We'll never get rid of it. That's what they're going to be called, so I'll relax on that, but the one I do resist. The one I keep resisting is when they look at an old guy and they'll say, "Look at him Dan! He's ninety years young."

 

"Imagine the fear of aging that reveals. To not even be able to use the word "old" to describe somebody. To have to use an antonym. And fear of aging is natural. It's universal. Isn't it? We all have that. No one wants to get old. No one wants to die, but we do! So we bullshit ourselves. I started bullshitting myself when I got to my forties. As soon as I got into my forties I'd look in the mirror and I'd say, "well, I...I guess I'm getting...older." Older sounds a little better than old doesn't it? Sounds like it might even last a little longer.

 

"Bullshit, I'm getting old! And it's okay, because thanks to our fear of death in this country, I won't have to die...I'll pass away. Or I'll expire like a magazine subscription. If it happens in the hospital, they'll call it a terminal episode. The insurance company will refer to it as negative patient-care outcome. And if it's the result of malpractice, they'll say it was a therapeutic misadventure.

 

"I'm telling you, some of this language makes me want to vomit. Well, maybe not vomit. Makes me want to engage in an involuntary personal protein spill." -- George Carlin

[THOR]

All my journalism and English professors, as well as every good editor I ever worked for, would beat me soundly over my head and shoulders if he or she ever found me using a euphemism -- and that's what "harvest" is. If you don't like to say "kill" or "shot," you could say "take" because it is the legal term describing what we do.

 

"Harvest" could be used by the owner of a closely managed, high-fenced deer farm of limited acreage when talking about all the deer his clients killed that year, but it is not an appropriate use of the word when an individual kills one free-ranging animal.

 

For what it's worth, the bastardization of words that are part of our heritage make me want to cry -- after I stop puking. I'm talking about "taxi" for taxidermist, "javi" for javelina, "spotter" for spotting scope, "speed goat" and "lope" for antelope, "yote" for coyote, "arrowed" for shot an arrow, etc. "Whitey" for whitetail is especially offensive.

 

I've also never been able to understand why virtually all bowhunters call rifle/firearms hunters "gun hunters." Although "gun" can be used to describe any firearm, I know very few people who hunt big game only with rifles who would call themselves a "gun hunter."

 

Bill Quimby

 

 

+100000 well said as always!

[Coues&Bass]

Rednecks are not politiclly correct but that does not mean I am not a responsiable hunter so I will call it whatever I feel is appropriate.

 

Thanks Rag Horn for putting it all out there! I hope my daughter and I can let the air out of acouple this weekend!

[hunter4life]

I agree with you Mr.Quimby.

 

Thanks for the excerpt, it was an interesting read. I see euphemisms used in my profession all the time and they, "make me want to engage in an involuntary personal protein spill".