About eight years ago, I worked with a guy who used to come into the office almost daily and start out with “Workin’ hard or hardly workin’?” I would bet that, by now, someone has killed him.
I also hate “think outside the box.” Everyone probably hates that phrase by now.
Is your boss from around the Pittsburgh area?
Two death-related phrases:
- Somebody has just escaped death. Invariably, someone will say, “I guess it just wasn’t his time.”
Sorry, I wasn’t aware that there’s some sort of schedule involved here.
- Somebody has just died. Invariably, someone will say, “I know she’s in a better place now.”
You know??? Exactly how do you know such a thing? And what better Place? Disneyland?
One I’ve found to be rather inspirational is, “Failure is the tuition you pay for success.”
However, as far as those I am none too thrilled with…
Ending every sentence with the word “fool”. Yes, I know I’m a tad off kilter. You don’t need to go about reminding me of it or relating me to a gangster, thank you. XP
The phrase “hot mess” never really made a hell of a whole lot of sense. I understand to what it refers, but eeesh…
The one I hate is: “Well, to be honest, blah, blah, blah…”
Oh, so you are otherwise lying all the time? Gee, thanks for being honest this time and thanks for letting me know.
I think what people really mean to say is: “Well, to be frank…” or “Well, to be direct…”
Another one I hate is: “Get’er done!”, said with redneck gusto. Just go clean your shotgun on the porch, Cletus, and be quiet.
I really hate hearing, “You have the right to remain silent…”
I dislike, “There but for the grace of God…” because I feel it’s tacky to imply that one is superior to another.
I’ve never heard that one - I know “If wishes were horses, beggars would ride” which, IMO, makes a good deal more sense.
Along a similar line, my mother used to occasionally trot out “If ifs and ans were pots and pans there’d be no need for tinkers” , which I really like in an archaic sort of way, though I suppose only a tiny fraction of the population would understand it now without further explanation.
On the negative side:
“In a hundred years, no-one will care.” Sounds like a really calming reassuring thing to say to someone who’s stressing about something minor … the sting in the tail, of course is that if no-ones going to care about this minor stuffup/misunderstanding/other negative thing, similarly nobody’s going to care at all about the good things you’ve done in your life. It’s basically saying “All our lives are totally meaningless”. The ultimate soul destroyer.
Methinks thou doth protest too much.
Archaic, overused, incorrect conjugation, based on misquoting Shakespeare.
We need to be the change we wish to see in the world.
Overused, but I like it.
Not a phrase so much, but a word usage. It is the difference between bring/take.
Will you bring me to the mall?
I prefer
Will you take me to the mall?
I love the word bling. It is a one syllable word that describes something we didn’t have a word for before “bling” was coined. It even sounds like what it describes.
My absolute favourite - from my dad - is used to describe a certain type of lady:
“All tits and toenails, like the barber’s cat.”
I also like “flat out like a lizard drinking” and of course the classic description of a spiv/pimp/used car salesman: “flash as a rat with a gold tooth”.
Two that are way overused in the media are “f-bomb” and “baby bump”. Both send me over the edge.
A friend recently introduced me to a new one. It was a hot day, and she’d just gotten out of her car (which has no A/C). “Jesus, I’m sweatin’ like a rapist” says she. This from a woman who has actually been raped. I’d never use it myself, but I thought it was pretty funny, in a horrifyingly inappropriate way.
*I HATE 'it is what it is." * THANK YOU, Silver Tyger Girl. My evil ex-boss used to say that.
*Two that are way overused in the media are “f-bomb” and “baby bump”. Both send me over the edge.*THANK YOU, Dante. One more is “rock” as a verb, synonym for “wear.” She was rockin’ a red dress with black suede pumps! Die, people.
A UK alternative: “sweating like a peadophile in a police station”.
So absolutely horrible, yet hilarious (and of course told to me by my then policeman boyfriend).
No, and it’s not my boss only - It seems to be stupid people who think that they have to write fast, to get all their valuable ideas on paper before thay dissipate.
Joe
My wife’s grandma was a tiny, ancient soul. She had a gentleman friend who was just as ancient, but was a big, still-intimidating-at-90 former boxer. After she died, we were reminiscing, and he used two phrases to describe her :
Well, she was no bigger than a popcorn weasel…
and
She was always as cold as a weasel’s dick.
No, I don’t know what his weasel fetish was about. I still say “cold as a weasel’s dick” to my wife, once in a while. It makes her smile.
Joe
I dislike “at the end of the day” and “canoodling”.
I think you’re misinterpreting the phrase. “There but by the grace of god go [blank]” doesn’t mean that [blank] is superior. It means that [blank] is at best equivalent and at worse inferior to the person undergoing an unpleasant situation, and only luck or providence has kept [blank] out of the clink thus far.
“My bad.” … Jeebus I hate that.