Anachronisms happen fast

Last week, during "Lost" there was a line of dialog which is anachronistic.

Sawyer says something like this: "Going forward, we need to communicate better."

The characters on Lost were stranded on their amazing island in the Fall of 2004. The primary group of them have been on that island for about 100 days. It is, therefore, still 2004, though perhaps the calendar has flipped into 2006. In any case, they've been isolated since fall 2004. {If I were a real "Lost" geek, I'd probably know the date Oceanic 815 crashed.}

So, what's the problem?

"Going forward" is a very recent phrase. I actually had a blog post about it before I moved to blogspot, but I put the post over on my "Echoes of Snippets" blog to keep track of it. My post was written in July 2006. In my search of articles about this (useless) phrase, I've found articles from whatis, from msdn, and from the BBC. The oldest of them is from January of 2006. {BBC's is the best, because it's funny!} But 2006 is much, much after the critical events that put our castaways on The Island.

Of course, if I didn't hate the phrase so much, I doubt I'd have noticed it. It would be hard, as a writer, to avoid picking up new phrases and using them in the scripts. Still, I hope the "Lost" writers, usually so meticulous about details, will be more careful.

Going forward.

[shudder]