Sir:
If I hear the phrase “cautiously optimistic” one more time, I think I shall lose my lunch.

Sincerely,
Brian A. Barnhorst, Esq.

Barry (sorry, no last name) avers:

I nominate the term “political correctness” – this phrase has lost all meaning and it’s tedious that the media express this term without any real thought.

Charlie Stough included the following in his latest BONG Bull:

URGENT APPEAL. A Canadian hack who avoids hackneyed words and phrases like the plague (his own description) asks, “How about an appeal in a future BONG bulletin for a moratorium — no, make that a total cessation — on the use of overworked words in print?

“What happened on Sept. 11, 2001 was ‘horrific.’ A car crash on a highway, however, sad that it takes three or four young lives, does not
compare with 9/11 in enormity but it seems ‘horrific’ has become the buzz word used by hacks to describe any tragedy beyond an ordinary event involving death or destruction.

“Icon: What did we use before we had this one? How often is it used in its proper meaning?

“And, one we see a lot: Coffers. Isn’t a word which used to describe containers for holding money in bygone years a bit antiquated in this
day of accounting by computer and instantaneous transfer of sums around the universe?

“I’m sure you and your many devoted readers can come up with many more words and phrases currently being grossly overworked and/or beaten to death on the pages of newspapers today — not to mention the electronic media.”

Yes of course, whatever we can do to ease the burden of our Canadian hack brethren. We never hear the word “hustings” until election time, when it becomes an instant cliche. “Warchest” is another of the same ilk, and we don’t mean warch, warcher, warchest. Who whistles at a

“whistle-stop?” And when was the last real stump seen at a “stump

speech?” Would the Secret Service let a candidate even climb onto a stump, and risk being nipped by a termite?

Mr. Mangan,
I’d like to propose for banishment the phrase “down a slippery slope.”

Every time a progressive idea is put forward someone is bound to accuse the
proponent of “leading us down a slippery slope.” Is there any other
direction to descend a slope that is slippery?

My other, more recent, peeve is the newer “it is what it is.” Apparently this is used to excuse the speakers lack of insight to a given situation.
Sandy Novak

From Karen Hazelton

It drives me crazy – ever since Sept. 11, “make no mistake” has been THE most over-used phrase. For fun, it’s added onto other cliches: Make no mistake, the rain didn’t dampen their spirits.

A newscaster favorite:

“Today a child has gone missing,” or “The child went missing nine days ago.” Exactly how does one go missing?

What about “free money“? Has someone ever paid for it?

“It pulls at your heartstrings” – Not only a nauseating sentiment, but I don’t remember learning about those in my anatomy class.

It’s “a crime of passion” when a woman kills a man, but a “brutal murder” when a man kills a woman…

Two for the banished list:

“Genre” and “circa” for over-use in the media.

Some other things that irritate me:

“For free” and “center around” – WRONG! It’s “free” and “center ON”!

Regis Philbin’s famous, “I’m going to read you the question,” instead of “I’m going to read the question TO YOU.”

Thank you,
Jennifer Grieco

Karen writes in to say

Hello!
I’m always amazed at what my fellow college students will say. I once heard a young woman telling her boyfriend: “I like you; you’re nice to conversate with.” After that I started hearing “conversate” everywhere. What’s wrong with “converse”? Or even just “talk”? I also want to know why “sleepy towns” are always “jolted awake” by crimes; and why my coworkers have to “touch base” with each other. And here’s the best one: an “over-used cliche”. As opposed to…?

From Christian Crumlish

One I’ve always hated is the “… and X is no exception” lede, but I’ll have to dig around to find an example.

From Tim Porter:

Here’s a list concocted by Ed Beitiks, a longtime reporter for the old (pre-sale) S.F. Examiner who died in January 2001 at too young an age. Ed was an original in every way and as such disdained cliche. He created this list of canards that could be dropped into most breaking news stories. Here’s a link to Ed’s obit.

• “It looked like a war zone,” said one bedraggled policeman. “Buildings falling down, bodies all over the place. I haven’t seen anything like this since I was in the “Nam.”
• “He was such a quiet man,” said a neighbor, who asked not to be identified. “I’d see him at the market and one time he even helped me with my groceries. I can’t believe it’s true.”
• “Oh, he was wild, sure, just like any other kid his age,” said his mother. “But he wasn’t a bad boy. I tried to keep him in the house after midnight, told him not to hang around with those other guys, but you know kids. He’d laugh and say, “Don’t worry about me, mom’.”
• Police report that arresting officers chased the teenager into an alleyway, where he turned to face them. The officer who fired the shots said he “saw something shiny” in the waistband of the suspect, but no weapon was found.
• “It sounded just like a railroad train going right by our heads,” said one of the neighbors, roused from a deep sleep by the crash.
• “It’s a miracle more people weren’t killed,” said one officer, looking around at the remains of the earthquake/sniper attack/meteor crash.
• “It sounded just like somebody letting off some firecrackers,” said one neighbor. “And then we looked out the window and saw Lurlene laying out there on the sidewalk.”
• Shaking his head, officer Kite said, “I’ve been on the force for more than 20 years and I’ve never seen anything like it.”
• One of the onlookers standing near the charred remains said he heard the sound of an engine sputtering, and looked up. “It seemed like he was in trouble, and he swerving around like he wanted to get back to the airport when the plane just turned into a fireball. I don’t think those people ever had a chance.”
• The man kept police at bay for eight hours by threatening hostages with a Swiss Army knife. He demanded a sixpack of Dr. Pepper, a Supremo pizza and a helicopter to Managua or Van Nuys, either one. The SWAT team closed in just before dark, finding the hostages inside the walk-in refrigerator and the suspect gone.
• Pilot Fred Tampico courageously avoided an entire block of apartment buildings — many with little blue-eyed babies gurgling quietly in their cribs — and crashed the airplane into an adjacent vacant lot, killing Mrs. Zamboni as she sat watching TV in her mobile home. “It was a very courageous thing he did,” said one air controller. “If that plane had hit the apartments, no telling how many people would’ve been killed.”
• Mrs. Jalapeno, a feisty 86-year-old, chased the two burly robbers down the street, tossing her umbrella at them as they turned around a corner. “That’ll teach ’em to jump an old lady!” she said with a twinkle in her eye.
• The defendant, dressed in prison overalls and staring straight ahead, showed no emotion as he listened to the jury’s verdict of guilty. But his mother and fiancee, sitting in the first row, broke down in tears.
• “I tried to run back in there to get the others,” said the teenager/fireman/courageous dog, after pulling the infant to safety. “But the flames were everywhere by that time, and I couldn’t get past the door.”
• A spokesman for the militant faction of the Shahid Liberatacion said that unless the western superpowers paid the $3.3 billion ransom and released prisoners taken in the Night of Pig’s Blood raid last Nov. 13, “The blood of these hostages will be on your hands.”

Joy Rothke sends these along:

• When the guy next door’s evil secret life is revealed: “He was a quiet neighbor. Kind of a loner.”
• Any lede that begins: “What do ABC and XYZ have in common?“
• The term “fast forward to” when discussing time.