{"id":173,"date":"2005-05-12T05:54:45","date_gmt":"2005-05-12T10:54:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/banned\/?p=173"},"modified":"2005-05-12T05:54:45","modified_gmt":"2005-05-12T10:54:45","slug":"a-clutch-of-cliches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/banned\/index.php\/2005\/05\/12\/a-clutch-of-cliches\/","title":{"rendered":"A clutch of cliches"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Somebody who won&#8217;t share a name will share these annoyances: <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Insurgent<\/b>: Apparently, &#8220;terrorist&#8221; is not politically correct enough<br \/>\nfor the news. <\/li>\n<li><b>Opposition<\/b>: What is wrong with calling them what they really are&#8212;enemies?\n<\/li>\n<li><b>Campaign trail<\/b>: What on this green earth is a campaign trail? (Besides<br \/>\njournalistic nonsense, of course) <\/li>\n<li><b>Innocent bystander<\/b>: If they&#8217;re not innocent, then they&#8217;re not bystanders,<br \/>\nare they?<\/p>\n<li><b>Last legs<\/b>: Whoever says something is on its last legs deserves to<br \/>\nhave no legs at all. <\/li>\n<li><b>Conflagration<\/b>: For when &#8220;fire&#8221; isn&#8217;t grand enough.<\/li>\n<li> <b>Modalities<\/b>: No one should ever use &#8220;modalities&#8221; instead of modes.<br \/>\nOn second thought, no one should ever use &#8220;modes&#8221; either, except when talking<br \/>\nabout mathematics.<\/li>\n<li> <b>Linkage<\/b>: &#8220;How do we say &#8216;link&#8217; and make ourselves seem well-educated<br \/>\nand intelligent?&#8221; &#8220;Let&#8217;s slap on a redundant -age ending to provide an extra<br \/>\nsyllable.&#8221; &#8220;Brilliant idea!&#8221; <\/li>\n<li><b>Capital murde<\/b>r: Unless you&#8217;re in a courtroom, you have no need to<br \/>\never use this phrase. <\/li>\n<li><b>Enormity<\/b>: A penalty of great enormity should be put on anyone who<br \/>\nsays &#8220;enormity&#8221;. <\/li>\n<li><b>Fighting chance<\/b>: I started to hate this phrase when I heard it three<br \/>\nor four times in one episode of the show Babylon 5.<\/li>\n<li> <b>XXX years young<\/b>: This hackneyed &#8220;inspirational&#8221; phrase is used on<br \/>\nany old person who isn&#8217;t dying right in front of the reporter. <\/li>\n<li><b>The King&#8217;s English<\/b>: Thou shalt not use archaic English in a trite<br \/>\nmanner. <\/li>\n<li><b>Expert<\/b>: Whenever a journalist says &#8216;expert&#8217;, he really means &#8216;talking<br \/>\nhead&#8217;. <\/li>\n<li><b>Professional<\/b>: The word professional used to mean that one did something<br \/>\nfor a living. Now it means almost anything the user wants it to mean. Professional<br \/>\ncar: A hearse by any other name&#8230;<\/li>\n<li> <b>Funeral director<\/b>: Wasn&#8217;t &#8220;undertaker&#8221; enough of a euphemism anyway?<br \/>\nNow people are euphemizing even further and calling these people &#8220;grief therapists&#8221;.\n<\/li>\n<li><b>Suspected<\/b>: Why not just say &#8220;accused&#8221; instead?<\/li>\n<li> <b>Lay the Groundwork<\/b>: Someone needs to lay the groundwork for this<br \/>\nphrase&#8217;s removal from English. <\/li>\n<li><b>English Languag<\/b>e: A poetic and highly overused way to say &#8220;English&#8221;.\n<\/li>\n<li><b>Manhunt<\/b>: Another one of those words borrowed from &#8220;policese&#8221; by journalists<br \/>\nthat has infected the vocabularies of millions. <\/li>\n<li><b>Like the Plague<\/b>: Avoid this phrase like the plague. <\/li>\n<li><b>Assaulted<\/b>: Fortifications and cities are assaulted in war. People<br \/>\nare hit, or shot, or stabbed, or raped. <\/li>\n<li><b>Suffer<\/b> a(n) <insert disease here>: If you have a disease, how can<br \/>\nyou not &#8220;suffer&#8221; it? <\/li>\n<li><b>Wardrobe malfunctio<\/b>n: Whoever came up with this one ought to have<br \/>\nan existence malfunction. <\/li>\n<li><b>Think outside the box<\/b>: This is the cliche I hate the most, no doubt<br \/>\nabout it. It means nothing. It serves no real purpose. It SHOULD NOT EXIST.\n<\/li>\n<li><b>Safe haven<\/b>: Is there such a thing as an unsafe haven? <\/li>\n<li><b>Nucular<\/b>: We&#8217;ve had 60 years to learn how to pronounce &#8220;nuclear&#8217; but<br \/>\npeople still keep screwing it up.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Somebody who won&#8217;t share a name will share these annoyances: Insurgent: Apparently, &#8220;terrorist&#8221; is not politically correct enough for the news. Opposition: What is wrong with calling them what they really are&#8212;enemies? Campaign trail: What on this green earth is &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/banned\/index.php\/2005\/05\/12\/a-clutch-of-cliches\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/banned\/index.php\/2005\/05\/12\/a-clutch-of-cliches\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/banned\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/banned\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/banned\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/banned\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/banned\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/banned\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/banned\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/banned\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/banned\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}