Cliches are commonplace, and used by perhaps everyone. Some can be used to improve on an intended mood, or point the speaker is trying to make. Most are usually just dull and thrown out there as filler, rather than a contributory phrase. Yet some cliches just make me cringe. They are the ones that you just know they are coming before the speaker has even gotten them out of their mouth. And once they have said them, all of what they said before has just been lessened by what is usually their closing statement. We all have these cliches that simply annoy us. Here are three that I find particularly useless. (You can view them after the jump, I don’t even want them on the front page.
- …..give 110 percent.
(besides the obvious mathematical thinking error, is there an assumption that my “100%” isn’t everything?, and why not 125%?) - Without further ado……..
(American Heritage describes ado, as “Bustle; fuss; trouble; bother.”. So the speaker isn’t going to bother to go to the trouble of speaking any more?) - No two ways about it.
(Not very good grammar for one thing. Does this mean there is only one way to look at something?
My family rneetd a condominium at Orange Beach, Alabama for three nights. We had a wonderful time digging in the sand and watching the dolphins swimming out in the Gulf of Mexico.
Great article but it didn’t have everything-I didn’t find the kitchen sink!