First off, I don't want to offend anyone, I'm not singling anyone out, and I don't plan to. Today's pet peeve is the use of the term "licensed state". I don't know what that is supposed to mean. Well, ok, I do, because I've been around opticians for a long time. No one else knows what we mean. Here's why. "Licensed state" means the state is licensed. Literally, South Carolina is licensed? To do what? What higher authority licensed South Carolina? No, no, South Carolina is a licensing state. They are the licensing authority. In much the same way that so many opticians keep doing the wrong thing because they've been doing the wrong thing for 20 years, we call those states that license opticians "Licensed States". This is poor use of grammar, and is poorly understood by most outside of opticianry. Those who do have a grasp of grammar and understand what we mean, think "oh, you mean licensing states". In the interest of appearing as intelligent as we think we are, I recommend we refer to states that license opticians as "licensing states" not "licensed states". The latter implies that the state is licensed, not doing the licensing. "Licensed state" is a long-used misnomer that reflects the history of the optician's lack of formal education. That is all. Off the soapbox.
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