"'Mode' could now use a rest. 'Slipping into a failure mode' is an admiral's jargon for 'failing.' Whenever a scientific term is embraced by jargonauts, the parameters are stretched beyond recognition. Let us return 'mode' to fashion, and to the large dollop of ice cream that lands squarely on top of the pie."
—William Safire, "On Language," The New York Times, December 28, 1980