"Cliches, cliches, cliches"

[Pecker]

Back in college I broke my back spending hours burning the midnight oil on an important English paper and the instructor returned it with a grade "C" and the notation that if I were to remove all the cliches there wouldn't be enough left to form a complete sentence, let alone a single paragraph.

I've learned to cringe when I hear a cliche. But they are so ingrained in our culture it's almost impossible to keep from using them.

Do you have any pet peeve cliches? Phrases that set your teeth on edge? That make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up?

One I really get ticked off at is, every cloud has a silver lining. Really?

Or, it could be worse. Don't show me!

I try to avoid cliches like a plague.

Pecker

(I bought an Italian car. It's a Mafia. It has a hood under the hood.)

 

[13788]

longtimelurker: What really gets me are the media cliches - the ones that are coined once and then everyone jumps on the bandwagon.

My current pet peeve is 'hearts and minds' - with military forces winning over the people of Iraq. The problem is that noone has the imagination to write anything else!

 

[Max]

Pecker,

I have to tell you that I am with you every inch of the way on cliches. Every time I stumble across one it makes me see red; not to put too fine a point on it, it really gets my goat and makes my blood boil.

But I am afraid to say I can't bring myself point a finger at these murderers of the mother tongue. What really beats me is how the teachers who taught them (or at least that's their story and they're sticking to it!) can rest easy in their beds. I couldn't sleep a wink with that on my conscience. I'll wager you couldn't either.

Still, in these so-called enlightened days, what more can you expect?

 

[Pecker]

Max, you grind your teeth in your sleep, I'll be willing to bet.

 

[13788]

sammygirly: ~giggles @ the Mod Squad avatar~

Dee fits in though with his new fro though eh?

Mine is "Fresh as a daisy" ... who decided daisies were the freshest thing?

 

[13788]

huge_cock_have_pic: the one I cannot stand is "FYI"

 

[johnstone1985]

Weapons of Mass Destruction. I think most people have had enough hearing that, and it's definatly lost it's meaning... wait! Did it have a meaning in the first place?

 

[13788]

AnonyMs: ..

 

[D_Martin van Burden]

Did you know "rule of thumb" represents a long antiquated (thank God!) British rule that said that a man could lawfully beat his wife with a stick or other instrument so long as it didn't exceed the width of his thumb?

Now how do you like them apples!

 

[Pecker]

Let's all get on the same sheet of music.



Pecker

(I had a lovely room and bath in my dorm. But I was on a gov't loan so they were in separate buildings.)

 

[13788]

gigantikok: [quote author=DeeBlackthorne link=board=meetgreet;num=1063306311;start=0#8 date=09/11/03 at 16:10:41]Did you know "rule of thumb" represents a long antiquated (thank God!) British rule that said that a man could lawfully beat his wife with a stick or other instrument so long as it didn't exceed the width of his thumb?

Now how do you like them apples![/quote]
Sounds alot like a South Carolina rule where you can beat your wife on the steps of any courthouse on Sundays if you so please...

But what i was thinking was... isn't complaining about cliches in a way a cliche itself? I mean, who in our society actually enjoys following the bandwagon? Most people use cliches because they don't know what else to say to sum up a situation. But i doubt anyone says to themselves "YEA! Cliches ROCK!". Ya know? So to discuss, as many people prolly do, ones distaste towards them seems moreso like a cliche to me than just saying something like "It's raining cats and dogs" every once in awhile.

 

[Pecker]

I think a new, one-word cliche is being perpetrated on the news viewer by the media.

The word is "Now."  If you haven't noticed before, you will after this, but nearly every reporter on TV and radio will start a sentence with "Now," which has no meaning whatever except to fill space (and supposedly to make them sound authoritative).

I've written them and complained, sent letters to the editor of our local newspapers and even sent an e-mail to Shepherd Smith at Fox News, all to no avail.

"Now," will begin sentences as many as 8-10 times in one 'journalist's' report, whether it's about Tom Daschel's ingrown toenail or a dog show at Westminster.

I think they should be fined for every useless "Now," and the money donated to a worthy cause.

Pardon my spouting but this is a major peeve of mine.
I actually find myself counting the "Now's" in every report.  

Maybe they get paid by the word.

Pecker

(At college, Sophia Loren's dorm room was next to mine. There was a tiny peephole in the wall.  I let her look.)

 

[13788]

wvalady1968: [quote author=Pecker link=board=meetgreet;num=1063306311;start=0#11 date=09/11/03 at 17:34:54]

(At college, Sophia Loren's dorm room was next to mine. There was a tiny peephole in the wall.  I let her look.)

[/quote]

Now, I've gotta tell you that you have to be Steven Wright's twin.

 

[Max]

[quote author=Pecker link=board=meetgreet;num=1063306311;start=0#11 date=09/11/03 at 17:34:54]I actually find myself counting the "Now's" in every report.  
[/quote]

I'm surprised to hear you say that Pecker. My experience of news bulletins in the US has persuaded me that American for "now" is "at this point in time". "Now" at least has the merit of being only one word.

 

[B_DoubleMeatWhopper]

"You want to have your cake and eat it, too"

Well, yeah. What the fuck good is having a cake, if I can't eat it? ???

 

[13788]

H8Monga: [quote author=DoubleMeatWhopper link=board=meetgreet;num=1063306311;start=0#14 date=09/11/03 at 22:32:09]"You want to have your cake and eat it, too"

Well, yeah. What the fuck good is having a cake, if I can't eat it? ???[/quote]


HAHA I've asked my grandmother that same question sans the f-word and she had not an answer... except it's a saying... but I can think of plenty of times I've had a cake and destroyed it!

 

[Ralexx]

Do you want to hear clichés ? do ya hear me ?
~ the crowd screams "Yeeeeaaaahhhh" ~
Do you want to hear some f**king good clichés ?
~ the crowd screams "Yeeeeaaaahhhh" louder ~
Then come to Roumania and I'll translate you some governmental discourses !! Wood-language (Communiste clichés), cotton-language (mass-media clichés), silly language (an expression of themselves) is all you'll hear. The same phrases, the same words for 14 years... do you wanna hear more ?

:-X

 

[13788]

aussiechick63: Never look a gift horse in the mouth.

WTF does that mean anyway? The horse is a gift? NOW I don't know about you but I don't make a habit of looking in horses' mouths.
I would be pretty pissed off if someone gave me a horse as a gift cos then I would have to feed the damn thing.

NOW Pecker aren't you sorry you decided to start the damned cliche post.

 

[Pecker]

It's not the size of the boat but the motion in the ocean.

Ugh.

Pecker

(I wouldn't invest in my brother-in-law's business. It was a Tall Man's Shop. In Tokyo.)

 

[13788]

oldman9x7: Only a few years ago, nobody had ever heard the word "closure". I'm sick to death of it. It sets my hair on end.

Gramps