Annoying English

And no, I'm not talking about the only people who seem to be reading my blog. I'm referring to overused phrases and clichés used by people who really have nothing to say in order to fool others into thinking they really do have something on their minds.


Note to those people: It's not working.


The number one despised phrase is "at the end of the day", according to the cliché-free folks at the Plain English Campaign. That's "end of the day", as in "What good does it do to carp about peoples' over realiance on trite, pat phrases, because at the end of the day they're going to say anything they want to say anyway?"


The Plain English people surveyed their 5,000 supporters in more than 70 countries as part of the build-up to its 25th anniversary. Their press release says "the independent pressure group was launched on 26 July 1979." Pressure group? Does that mean they bribe politicians? Do they extort political favors with threats of blackmail? (Unless you want to see photos of your dangling participles splashed across the Globe and Mail, you'll kill every fifth adjective. We mean business.)


On the other hand, it is good to see that defenders of the mother tongue have taken up residence in 70 countries. I take a shameless imperialistic glee in hoping that some people in Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia are as annoyed by "at this moment in time" and "with all due respect" as I am. And I can barely contain my Schadenfruede at the thought of a Hezballah terrorist blubbering to his Israeli captors "Like, I just want to, like, be able to go to my job at the suicide belt factory without, like, being detained for, like, five hours at one of your, like checkpoints."
8.4.04 00:35
 


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