"AT THE END OF THE DAY" named most irritating cliche

Associated Press ^ | 3/24/2004

[Henrietta]

"The one the irritates me the most is when people say I could care less."

Ooh, I hate this one, too! I think it makes one sound very stupid. I have to resist the urge to correct others when I hear them say this...

[ValerieUSA]

What's wrong with just saying "now"?

[RightWhale]

That's like, so cool.

[Henrietta]

Yes, that's what I always wonder!

[Mr. Buzzcut]

"Rock on!"

What am i saying -- I love that one!

[38special]

I know that's right.

You ain't lying.

I heard that.

You better believe it.

[Gerish]

Oh I can't stand that one....especially from politicians, "what the American people want......" (is for you to shut-up)!

[stainlessbanner]

Other annoying ones:

Drink your own bathwater
Herding cats

[3catsanadog]

Bipartisan, when used by a Congresscritter (99% of the time by a Democrat) as in "We need to have a bipartisan agreement on this," means "You are not agreeing with our Democrat agenda."

[3catsanadog]

A Penny for your thoughts

Could we just stop and smell the roses?????

[newgeezer]

"To be honest with you, ..." (So, up to now, you've been lying to me?)

"Quite frankly,"

"The fact of the matter is,"

[CharacterCounts]

Could we just stop and smell the roses?????

Whatever turns your crank.

[LibWhacker]

I'm tired of hearing, 'in the final analysis.' And I'm more guilty than anyone else of using 'definitely' and 'absolutely' as interjections. I know I should quit but can't. Cliches can be addictive. 'Really' drives me nuts and 'drives me nuts' drives me nuts, now that I think about it (which also drives me nuts).

I posted an article on cliches a couple of years ago and thought these two passages were really (arghhh!) good:

Writing well, or even acceptably, involves struggle more than axioms. Martin Amis called his recent collection of literary essays The War Against Cliché. To write, as he says, means campaigning against cliché: "Not just clichés of the pen but clichés of the mind and clichés of the heart." This involves far more than taste. Clichés deaden prose but also deaden information, discussion, and the people who use them. They limit and enclose thought, forcing it down predetermined channels.

Vaclav Havel, the Czech playwright and politician, put it beautifully: "The cliché organizes life; it expropriates people's identity; it becomes ruler, defence lawyer, judge, and the law."

[x]

"At the end of the day" originated in Britain. It was strange to see an English politician say "at the end of the day, you have to be able to live with your conscience" and think, "here's someone who takes the long view of things" and then realize later that everyone over there throws the phrase around, sort of like "in the final analysis." It's a way of saying "that's all I have to say about the matter, so let me stop here."

Cliches abound in business (push the envelope, think outside the box, proactive) and politics (gravitas, incisive) and anywhere people have to talk when they don't have anything to say. Originally they were once fresh and novel, but excessive use has worn them away. The first person to apply the Roman concept of "gravitas" to Presidential politics was very insightful, but today it's a word commentators use when the don't know or want to say what they mean.

During the Clinton impeachment, every political analyst talked about him using the "bully pulpit" of the Presidency during the State of the Union. If people talked about him using the speech as a "pulpit" it might raise a lot of questions about a disgraced leader preaching to the rest of us. But "bully pulpit" is so fossilized or entombed as a cliche that it's less evocative than pulpit alone would be. Don't use it unless you're Theodore Roosevelt or are in the habit of using "bully" or "ripping" to mean "good" or "fine."

"One night stand" is another annoying phrase, people use to avoid saying just what they mean. People who don't actually have a background in vaudeville should avoid it.

[EUPHORIC]

Personally I'd have opted for the stale "thats whut I'm tawkin about" thing that everyone is doing every three minutes...

[Revolting cat!]

Sometimes I think that what we mean by having "social skills" or practicing the "art of conversation" (in the mundane everyday sense not the My Dinner with Andre type,) is the ability to exchange with a straight face series of the most overused cliches. I started pro-actively (# 1) avoiding like fire (# 2) the watercooler exchanges (# 3) at the office, when I discovered that any attempt to make them interesting by subverting the usual cliches only shocked and awed (# 4) people, some of whom who might be later signing my pink slip or 2.5% raise.

[Steve0113]

Most incorrectly used (including on FR): "That begs the question..."

Major pet peeve there. It's used instead of, "That raises the question..."

Even on FR, it's rarely used correctly.

I beg to disagree.

So do I.

"That begs a question" is an idiom, as well as a cliche...

I hope not. It has a precise meaning. To beg a question is to pretend it never came up. Or, as a lawyer would say, it is to presume facts not in evidence.

Incidentally, that comma on the second quoted line from the top is used incorrectly.

Nope. A comma before a quotation is correct standard style. Some other styles don't include the comma, but it is standard. Nice try, though. :)

[tet68]

Vote for John Kerry, like, at the end of the day, you'll be glad you did!

I like it, catchy, a real eye opener.
Hey DU, give it a try!

[reelfoot]

I had wanted to bring "closure" to this discussion while the topic was still current, but now I see it's "toast." ("If I'm lying, I'm dying.") "Do you know where I'm coming from?"

[sinkspur]

"If I'm lyin', I'm dyin."

If you say that, of course I know where you're comin' from: Yazoo City, Mississippi, home to the inimitable Jerry Clower.