Nellie Hill emotes:
Emotionally Charged……..What can I say about this one. People everywhere from waiting in line at Walmart for a Wii to attendees at a vet’s funeral are experiencing this emotional charge. I think I’ve heard it everyday for this last week. (The Washington Redskins, their fans, the victims of the mall shooting in Omaha….AARRGGG!)
Rachael Bradford writes:
This is used enough to make the list: Even some who respond here overuse the phrase “roll over in his/her grave“.
What dead person was important enough to be disturbed by what some random person is doing now to wake up and “roll over in his grave”
Really? When will this happen? I have got to see this one!
(Editor’s note: too many writers think they’re clever saying “that rumbling you hear is the sound of xxx rolling over…”)
Eliza So is irked by:
Semi-vegetarian: Either you eat meat or you don’t. Why do people feel the need to add the word vegetarian when describing their various meat eating habits? To make matters worse, there are now oxymoronic sub-types
of semi-vegetarians like porco-vegetarian (one who eats pork), crusto-vegetarian (you guessed it - someone that eats crustaceans), repto- vegetarians; if I keep
going, I’m going to barf. But you get the idea.Terrible twos: the stigma that comes with being a 2 year old is both inaccurate and undeserved.
The comunity has “opened their hearts and wallets“. Why do news reporters use these very same words in every other story that involves charity?
From Robin D. Best, news editor of the Henderson Daily News in Henderson, Texas:
There has been a recent evolution in sports news coverage and sports talk
show hosts.In the last year, I have heard sports anchors begin giving commentary and
using single player’s names as if it represented an entire group or
characteristic.Example:
“What the Dallas Cowboys are hoping to pick up is another Troy Aikman and maybe an Emmit Smith or at least a Barry Sanders…”Yuck!
Thanks for letting me air this out…
From Peter Musial
I think you should add “the male species” to your list. Males
or females are not species in themselves. I hate constantly reading
this phrase.
From Peter Lynn:
Some words and phrases I’m getting a little tired of:
Killer app.: Unless the technology functionally resembles
the HAL 9000 computer from “2001,” it’s not a killer application.
It’s just a tired phrase.Diva: Being used today to discuss almost any female singer
or demanding star, it should strictly refer to female opera stars.
Elton John is not, and cannot be, a diva — no matter how bitchy he
acts. The term “prima donna” has already been extended to refer
to tempermental, conceited people, so let’s please retain the precision
of “diva”.Fashionista: What a pretentious word! Surely Che Guevara
would roll in his grave at the thought that the “-ista” suffix used
by freedom-fighting guerrillas has been co-opted by those in the fashion
industry, as if their escapades on the runways of Milan are of the
same importance as the struggle for liberty in the jungles of Latin
America.
R. G. Harris of Detroit,
Michigan, read the proceedings below and passed the following along:
I agree especially with the criticism of broadcast journalists
and would add that they should also be forever forbidden from asking
inane questions of crime or disaster victims. Does anyone really doubt
how one feels when they have seen their home destroyed (totally destroyed
to the reporters) by fire, flood, tornado, etc. Or need they ask how
the family of a murder victim feels?Many other words or phrases should be eliminated. Among them:“A real team player;” “Ready to hit the ground running;”
a “self-starter;” and “There’s no ‘I’ in ‘team‘.”We should also stop “doing lunch” and “taking meetings.” As a retired police supervisor, I also have strong negative feelings
about many cases of “cop-speak.” I once heard an arresting
officer testify as follows:“I observed a male subject exit a red colored vehicle and
proceed on foot in a westerly direction.”Wouldn’t it be easier to see a man get out of a red car and walk
west? A “red-colored” as opposed to a red-flavored or red-shaped?
A “westerly direction as opposed to a westerly size?Do we ever sound so stupid as when we try to sound smart?
Jon Rathbun lends fame to the following:
I hate the use of terms like “well-known” or “famous” in celebrity obituaries. When I read the daily deaths on the Associated Press wire I figure that if a famous (fill-in-the-blank) were famous, I would not need to be told of this fame. It seems that including the term is AP’s way of telling you that you have never heard of the deceased.
Christopher Palmer, who probably lives in a dangerous neighborhood, will be prepared when the inevitable happens:
When someone commits a terrible crime, the neighbors always say, “He was a quiet guy who always kept to himself” (or some very slight variation). If my neighbor ever commits a crime, I’m telling the reporters, “He was a madman! He wandered around half-naked screaming obscenities! He had sex with goats!” (even if he was a quiet guy who always kept to himself).