Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Cliches that need to be wiped from the crust of the earth

Sports bloggers, unite! Let us vow never to use the following two cliches.

At the end of the day
I hear this phrase about 40 times a day. Let us resolve never to use it. Sometimes it even gets combined with other phrases that mean the same thing:

"What it comes down to, ultimately, at the end of the day is that the bottom line is you got thrown under the bus."

Which brings us to:

Throw/thrown/threw under the bus
Be creative. How about "Terrell Owens stuck a load of TNT up Donovan McNabb's ass." How about "Terrell Owens carried Jeff Garcia to the top of a roof and dangled him by the ankles before dropping him." Why is the only violent image of betrayal and blame used in sports today "threw under the bus"? It's replaced "stabbed in the back" as an overused cliche. I would even accept "Terrell Owens kicked Andy Reid in the crotch, stabbed his eyes out, and then led him into the road into oncoming traffic."

Which reminds me of my favorite joke:
Q: Why did the little girl get hit by a bus?
A: Because somebody sawed off her arms and legs and set her in the road.

So here at PV, we are replacing "thrown under the bus" with "got his arms and legs sawed off and set in the road."

And finally, here's a cliche that I welcome keeping:

It is what it is
I need this cliche. You need this cliche. We all need this cliche. I say "It is what it is" when my wife does something that upsets me and then asks if I'm mad. I don't have to say "It's OK," I don't have to say "Yes, I'm upset," I can just say "It is what it is." Such as:

PF: Honey, I signed us up for an all-day Saturday class on breastfeeding.
VV: (dead silence, staring out the window)
PF: Oh, are you upset about that?
VV: It is what it is.

So, at the end of the day, I don't want to throw "it is what it is" under the bus. But I don't want any sportswriter, blogger, coach or athlete so say "at the end of the day" or "thrown under the bus" ever again.

(By the way, why "the" bus? Is there a specific bus for throwing people under? How about "a" bus? Well, it will never matter for us again).

6 comments:

  1. C'mon!!! I like "thrown under the bus!"

    "Thrown under the bus" is like "left for dead."

    I don't know if I can promise you I can stop using bus related cliches.

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  2. I can't stand the ever increasing hyperbole. Mike Greenberg, after the Patriots-Jets game, called Brady the best big game quartback he had ever seen. This may be true, but please, after a first round wild card game?

    Also, thanks for the links. Both, here, and at your other site which I haven't completely investigated yet.

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  3. This post is what it is, and at the end of the day, I can't believe you're throwing the cliche-happy humans under the bus!

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