So by your logic, Black Tuesday must have been called that because of racism as well.
And don’t get me started on Black Friday…
I agree that that is a very lazy criticism. I only use it to complain about movies I found to be not just bad, but truly, offensively banal. Like I got tricked into sitting through some dreck when I could have instead been picking my toes while listening to Gregorian chants at 2/3 speed with jalapeño juice in my eyes.
But, everyone being treated for cancer is a “fighter”, even infants who have no agency in what may be happening to them.
“Oranges and apples”
Say the bells of St. Chapples.
Another old one that got shorthanded. Really, I can’t object to it. Pointing out a false comparison of two things that have some similarity (both fruits) but are still essentially different. You see, I don’t mind if something is useful and gets reduced to a catchphrase; everyone knows what it means.
I would agree that if something becomes a racist thing (even if it was not originally), then that could represent a sound reason to retire it.
To the best of my knowledge, that simply hasn’t happened with the pot/kettle thing; it’s just an idiom that happens to contain the word ‘black’.
And if you want a variation on it where someone can’t retort ‘But they’re both fruit!’, there’s always ‘comparing apples and orang-utans’
Well, that would require a paradigm shift, but yanno, not my circus,not my monkey
“You know the definition of insanity is…”
#1 Whatever it is you’re about to say, not it is not.
#2 No, Mark Twain, Albert Einstein, Ben Franklin, or whoever else you were about to attribute that erroneous statement to, certainly did not ever say that (in all likelihood it probably originated in the “approval version” of the Narcotics Anonymous “Basic Text” released in November 1981, but nobody is ever going to say that).
“Insanity” is a legal term. There is no such diagnosis of “insanity” in the DSM.
I once sent that to a friend of mine, totally forgetting her first husband had died of cancer. Fortunately she found it hilarious.
This thread is a total game changer.
The mention of bingo cards above makes me remember that when I worked the audio/video for a corporate conference hall, we literally made biz-speak buzzword bingo cards as a joke. This was seven or eight years before Weird Al’s “Mission Statement.”
There’s one I don’t mind in casual conversion, but it drives me nuts when news anchors use it: “Get this,” as in, “The man returned to the shop and, get this, pulled out a gun.”
I’m watching your newscast. Presumably, I’m getting all of it. If you feel the need to frequently remind your viewers to pay attention, maybe you need to present more actual news.
Another thread deprecating the cliché? These come around like clockwork. I wonder if there’s another word for that?
This thread is like déjà vu all over again.
Well, I just thought of one because I used it this morning with someone who messed up, was embarrassed, and apologized profusely.
Teacher: “I tried several times, but I just can’t log this student into Google. I can’t imagine what’s wrong!”
Me: “You had the wrong password.”
Teacher: “No, I got it from Power School!”
Me: “You reversed two of the numbers. … … Hey, if that’s the worst mistake you ever make, you should be dancing in the streets.”
I like to stay ahead of the trends and use “I smell you” or “I smell what you’re laying down” if I’m feeling gregarious.
Or, “Let me be clear…”
What, you weren’t being clear before?
I prefer the Zen koan version: “It is what it is not.”
And then we are informed that: “Police are scouring the area for the suspect.” Sounds very clean.
But if the person with cancer dies, my understanding is the cancer dies as well. Worst case scenario is a tie.
Unless you’re Henrietta Lacks. Her cancer definitely won.