From Ian Trontz:

“Battle lines were drawn” to describe any controversy
(sometimes preceded by “Tempers flared”).

“Where (insert dominant local livestock here)
outnumber humans” to describe any rural area.

“Scrambling.” About half the nation’s newspapers
must have run stories following the aborted American Airlines strike
that read, “leaving the airline scrambling.” That would
cause a disaster the likes of which the NTSB has never seen. The word
never again should appear outside of a football story.