Que Sera.

Cinematic Moment:  Definitely not "Etc."

My pet peeve of the day is the improper use of the term et cetera.  Webster's Dictionary defines the term as "the logical continuation of some sort of series of descriptions."   The key word in this definition being "logical."  Take the following example:

I like to drink all kinds of red wine:  Chianti, Montepulciano, Merlot, etc.

This is logical because all of the listings are in fact wine and have a common thread in the fact that they are also red.  Ah, sweet sweet logic.  All too often on a Myspace "favorites" section I see something like this example:

Music Favorites:  Yanni, Black Eyed Peas, Tool, Buena Vista Social Club, Travis Tritt, Journey, Devo, etc.

There is nothing remotely logical about this pairing.  Some of these are music, some are not. The use of "etc." is completely inappropriate because unless you are Rain Man, you would never group these things together.  Let's try another, shall we?

I like ice skating, eating shit sandwiches, chillin', professional jousting, pizza, watching movies, verbally abusing my best friend, etc.  

Aside from the obvious pairing of "jousting" with "eating shit sandwiches" there isn't a whole lot of continuity going on in this autobiographical blurb.  Just end the damn thing and admit to the fact that there is absolutely nothing logical about you.  I might also suggest an ellipsis, which Wikipedia says is totally acceptable. 

{ Here are some images I garnered from searching the terms "etc." and "etcetera" to make this post less like a middle school English book.  Later we will learn about things NOT to search on google...}