Dreaded Cliches of 2007

Quote of the day:
"Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes."
--Francis Bacon

On January 1st, frustrated editorial writers at the Los Angeles Times published a list of what they called “cringe-worthy turns of phrase that have been cluttering up the language in recent years.”

I was shocked, shocked to discover gambling going on in this establishment.

Sorry. I’ll try again.

I was astonished that my least-favorite cliche, “first and foremost,” failed to make their list.

On the other hand, I was immensely satisfied to see another low one on my list: “think outside the box.” About this, they say “In effect, this says ‘do your best to be original’ in the least original way.”

I remember the immortal words of Preston Creston: “Those who say ‘think outside the box’ often don’t know where the box is.”

There were some other noteworthy entries by the LA Times:

“‘Too much information.’ Overused the second time it was uttered. And no, ‘TMI’ is not acceptable either.

“‘Blue-ribbon panel.’ Has there ever been a red-ribbon panel?

“‘It’s all good.’ Is it? Really?

“‘My bad.’ Yes.

“‘No worries.’ This concept started with Alfred E. Neuman, and should have ended there.

“‘Support the troops.’ As a reminder to back brave men and women, OK. As a call to political conformity, enough.

“‘WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?).’ Our guess is that, among other things, he’d be amused by people who presume to know what he’d do.

“‘Unprecedented.’ This word appeared in 600 articles in The Times last year alone. But it doesn’t mean what we’ve used it to mean: ‘unusual’ or ‘for the first time.’ It means that there is no precedent, which there almost always is.

“‘Existential threat.’ We think this means ‘really serious threat,’ but we’re not sure. We suspect that many people who use it aren’t sure either.

“‘Metrics.’” Can we begin to deliver shocks to managers when they say this word?

“‘At the end of the day.’ No great improvement over ‘when push comes to shove,’ unless it really is the end of the day.”

Thanks to Merrie for sharing this list with me. Isn’t she terrific?