Cliches cause mental rashes

For the love of Pete, make no bones about it, but the use of clichés is making me mad as a hatter. I mean, seriously, we all need to bite the bullet and put our brains in gear before we put our mouths in gear and our fingers to the keyboards. The writing is on the wall: Vapor-lock of the brain occurs when clichés collide with original thought.

I am not going to beat around the bush.  We must vow to put a sock in annoying expressions that are not worth a plug nickel. Now is the time for people to jumpstart unique oral and written expressions by declaring zero tolerance for words, words, words that are beyond the pale. The buck stops with these:

· Hot Mess: The Urban Dictionary’s first definition of this phrase says that it as a situation where, “ones thoughts or appearance are in a state of disarray but they maintain an undeniable attractiveness or beauty.” Most people seem to follow their third definition, “a derogatory term describing a situation, behavior, appearance, etc. that is disastrously bad,” (http://www.urbandictionary.com).  Examples: “His haircut, her outfit, or, their chilled avocado soup is a hot mess.” Umm, how can a cold soup be a hot mess?  It has become the go-to descriptive phrase, and takes the cake for triteness.

· Forever home: Every human and animal deserves a place of safety filled with love and comfort. I will not demean this serious and heartfelt hope with any worn-out words.  Why, then does every real estate-oriented television show and every piece of mail that I get from animal rescue organizations dilute this most basic necessity with overuse?

· Make it my own. I am at my wits end with this idiotic idiom.  Let’s say that Jack’s job has panned out and he has found a place to call home. Since he is footing the bill, of course he’s going to remodel, redecorate, and renovate it in a way that reflects his tastes- not his bosses, his brother’s or his best bud’s.

·  That’s how I roll. As far as I know, Guy Fieri of Diners, Drive Ins and Dives coined this phrase. People should not try to, “Make it their own,” but should coin their own phrase that shows how they live. The phrase has fallen into the Mundane Zone because too many people use it instead of mining their minds for a fresh phrase.

· Be there for me/Has been there for me. I saved this one for last because just typing it makes my hands shake and my head hurt. Besides starting the phrase with it or there and a to be verb which is just weak writing, the people using this expression never tell where there is. Instead, they need to choose a verb that shows not only the action- support- but also the emotion behind the action. Any of these synonyms would be a far, far better choice: encourage, back, assist, sponsor, defend, boost, promote, confirm, verify, validate, substantiate or endorse.

Now is the time to face the music, or this mental rash will coat our brains with banality.

Now is the time to quit wool gathering and to pull out all of the stops to end this epidemic.

Now is the time to put a sock in this week’s post.

Until next week,