Saturday, August 26, 2006

Cliches

Here are a couple of addictive web sites by defenders of words and their intended useage. If you ever bristle at an overused analogy or trite cliche - these are for you:

http://tommangan.net/banned/

http://www.newswriting.com/groaners.htm

Some of my favorite entries:

Motorists - Where have all the drivers gone? Don’t fall into the DMV Handbook trap.

Plunge, Plummet - Ever notice that nobody just falls anymore? Newton’s Law applies. No matter what word you use, you hit the ground just as hard, so keep it simple.

White Supremacist - Putting aside its obviously non-conversational tone, “white supremacist” sounds too lofty. It’s more than those lowlifes deserve. Most of them probably don’t even know what “supremacist” means. It’s also inherently racist. Somehow we never use “supremacist” without “white” before it. Violent radicals of different hues tend to be called “separatists”, as if no member of any non-white race would dare think in “supreme” terms.

2 comments:

Jennifer said...

Ooo, fun websites!

Kathleen said...

I can't wait to check these out!