Late last year, I went off on the sloppy usage of “icon” and “iconic”. It was in regard to Vin Scully and a media release (not written by Vinny) about his plan to return to the Dodgers broadcast booth in 2014. And the intellectually bankrupt Dodgers PR crew used both icon and iconic within the first few sentences.

I about lost it just now, middle of the night, when I saw another Dodgers release, about Opening Day … and the vocab-challenged flacks came up with this one:

“Fans can visit the iconic Clydesdales in Dodger Stadium’s parking lots …”

Clydesdales, iconic? Those enormous horses that are too big to be alive? That used to pull a beer truck?

Semi-famous, perhaps. Kinda well-known, maybe.

But not iconic.

And it occurred to me that I have become a bit, oh, unhinged about “icon” and “iconic”. (What was that Three Stooges bit about Niagara Falls … and if they heard those words they lost their minds. Some sort of trigger. Maybe a hypnotism thing. Was it Curly or Moe who lost it?”)

And I had a thought:

How often on this blog, which goes back to 2008, have I (no!) used icon or iconic myself?

Not as often as I feared, but more often than I would like.

But, yes (the shame of it) … I have used the “I” word a time or three.

An excuse: At least three of the references I found in a search pertained to LeBron James, repeating his stated goal of becoming a “global icon”. That’s me quoting him, see?

But not all of the references were LBJ-oriented.

–March 25, 2008: “… the iconoclastic Don Nelson”. I will defend myself here. In that usage it means he does not venerate what he ought to venerate — paintings of Byzantine saints/rulers, as well as “the way things are normally done” in basketball, back when he was coach of the Golden State Warriors.

–May 24, 2008. Another I will plead mitigating circumstances. I was referring to Nick Van Exel, former Laker, and I made reference of his “Byzantine-icon eyes”. Big and round and soulful. That’s fair. Van Exel did have Byzantine-icon eyes.

–A David Beckham piece, on July 20, 2009, when I suggested he thought himself a “global icon” — like LeBron wanted to be. Not that awful.

–January 22, 2009, another “global icon” reference — applied to AC Milan’s soccer team. Getting a little sloppy with LeBron’s phrase.

–Kim Kardashian? “Icon” got into my blog via an overheated PR firm, on November 18, 2014. I was quoting them. No foul there.

–May 4, 2011, talking about the Lakers, and a reference is made to “Fisher is an iconic figure” — but that was my usage of a colleague writing about the Lakers. Not taking the fall there. (Plus, I’m sure that colleague would never use “iconic” again, in 2015.

But here are some that are me, before I saw the light and/or became allergic to the abuse of icon and iconic.

–August 1, 2010. Explaining a series The National had done on important stadiums in the world, and describing Wrigley Field as “iconic”. Sigh.

–July 12, 2010 … in a post comparing Dodger Stadium and Angel Stadium, I use the phrase “iconic Dodger Dog”. Yes, I did. (And the more I think of it, the Dodger Dog may actually warrant “iconic”. It certainly is venerated by consumers. A work of culinary art.)

–December 6, 2009, I described the Heisman Trophy as an “iconic trophy”. Caught red-handed there. That was before I saw the light.

–And the worst. On September 19, 2008, I used “iconic” twice in one post. Not quoting someone else, no LeBron James anywhere in the area. In a “favorite Dodgers” list I described Maury Wills as “an iconic figure” … and a few grafs later I described Sandy Koufax as “the iconic figure of the L.A. Dodgers glory days”.

But I have seen the error of my ways, and what is that they say about ex-smokers? They are more militant about smoking than those who never smoked at all?

Maybe that’s me and icon/iconic. I will go and sin no more — and I want everyone else to stop sinning, too.