Hannah M. G. Shapero asserts:
I can’t believe that you haven’t cited “the perfect storm” as one of the newer more annoying cliches. Ever since the book and movie, writers have been using it to describe a rare or coincidental confluence of factors that make something into far more than it would usually be, whether it’s a “perfect storm” of urban violence or a “perfect storm” of celebrity media buzz.
Jason Harris insists:
The phrase “war on terror” is like a hot spike driving through my brain. Technically, the usage is correct but it still sounds to me like the equivalent of a war on fear, which is damned stupid. How does one fight a war against an abstract concept? Is the extra syllable in the more accurate, and almost as aggravating, “war on terrorism” that onerous?
Fuyu Yuki says this one’s common in the UK:
How about that irritating sporting phrase “crashed out” ? It is used when a person or team loses to another and is eliminated from a contest. It is also inappropriately used. Regardless of if the “crashed out” party narrowly lost or was totally beaten, the newscasters will still refer to them as having “crashed out”.
Larry Davis says:
One phrase needs to go: “Broad daylight”. If mayhem occurs between 9 am and 5 pm (especially in the summer), it always happens in ‘broad daylight’. Unless the weather played a part in the robbery, I would image most daylight would be broad, and there’s usually daylight during the day.
You know that if there were a robbery during a solar eclipse, somebody would write, “The stabbing took place in broad daylight”.
Dan Hoyt says,
Every time I hear “changes everything” as in, “The Internet changes
everything,” I get heated. What would change everything? The end of the
universe is the only candidate I can think of. The Internet doesn’t even
change MOST things. It doesn’t change the specific gravity of water (or
anything else), or the fact that I sometimes snore, or my birthday, or any
of a huge number of other things. If the Internet would change the phrase
“changes everything” into something that no one ever speaks or writes, the
world would be a slightly better place.
Joaquin Vargas avers,
I’ve hated this over-used phrase since I was editor of my high school paper:
- “All That Jazz.”
This is used in headlines for articles that have anything remotely to do with jazz, as in “Sacramento festival has All That Jazz,” or “Local Students Play All That Jazz.” I want to punch something whenever its used in this way.