What the hack?

    The word hack would be my hands-down nomination for the most used, and misused if I'm any judge, word of the year.  It's a word that too many want to apply to their own situation, in a most smugly aggravating manner.
    You can hack down a tree.
    You can play golf badly and be a hack.
   You can call a cab and a hack driver may respond.
   You can write for a newspaper, and be called a hack journalist if you're mediocre .
   You have a cold and hack all night; you have a bad hack.
   You can even be an untalented professional, of an inferior sort.
All of these meanings have been around for a while;  the aggravation starts here:  A hack can be a quick solution that solves a problem, but not very well.  Usually a temporary, sloppy fix.  So we are now subjected to the version of hack as promoted on the media,as if a hack is a glorious, innovative way to make our lives better. Too many people have latched on to the word as a way to enhance their own fame or pocketbook.  "Let me show you a hack."  Most so-called hacks are at best the most feeble efforts at recycled bon mots that used to be called hints.  I remember a column of "Hints from Heloise," back in the 1960's and 70's I believe.  One such hint was to make your house plants shine by wiping their leaves with mayonnaise.  At the time, I thought it was a waste of mayo, when you could just as easily wipe the leaves with water, but it was a popular hint for a while.  The other day, I witnessed that same procedure being presented as an original idea, but called not a hint but a hack.  It is a brave new world, and we're years past 1984.