To officially make a statement expressing disapproval or rebuke. It comes from the Latin for "censor," but it's more about an official response to something bad and less about preventing something bad from happening.
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This is the Christmas season, and there are a lot of gift guides on the internet. There are plenty of interesting, good ones, but I've really enjoyed Slate's "Good Enough" gift guide. Here's a quick explanation of it:
It’s not that some things aren’t truly better than others. And sometimes the better things do happen to be the priciest available. But the reasons they are better are subtle. Take the Dyson hair dryer. It costs $400. It gets glowing reviews, in part because people think it makes their hair look nicer than other dryers do. It does not do this, though the stylists that Dyson uses to show off its hair products are certainly capable of doing this, providing the illusion of an exemplary product. The hot air itself is the same stuff at any price.
But after several weeks of testing a sample Dyson, sending it back, thinking about it for more than a year, and then retesting it for another several weeks, I concluded that I was absolutely in love with the Dyson and very much wanted to keep it.
The reason is that the handle doesn’t vibrate. At all. I didn’t realize how much seemingly every other hair dryer on the planet rattles and shakes until I tried the Dyson. I personally couldn’t justify $400 for that feature, but I enthusiastically recommended it for those with a lot of disposable income who are extremely into blow-drying their hair.
This gift guide is not for those people. Because for every $400 Dyson, there are a dozen products that may not have that amazing feature but are, well, fine—particularly for their far lower price.
There are plenty of good, quality items on the list. Go check it out over at Slate.
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