Words and Phrases that

Bug the Hell Out of Me

(especially when they're Overworked in Commercials,

Diplomatic-speak or Columns like Mine). 

 By Hal Drucker

I plead guilty to using a word or phrase in a typical column, that upon a thorough re-reading, gives me the kind of agita I associate with a colonoscopy preparation.

That being said (now that’s a phrase that should not be said at any cost – especially when you hear it umpty-ump times on Meet the Press or ESPN).  What should be said instead, is On the Other Hand. Jewish comedians of my father’s day, such as Lou Holtz and Willie Howard would use that phrase artfully to equivocate on summoning up a potential Solomonic solution to a problem– i.e  BU-U-U-T on the other  hand etc. etc.

On  Meet the Press, on any given Sunday you will hear a politician say, “what we need is (choose one) a State Department, a Senate, a CIA, a White House that has more transparency. Ugh. The antithesis of transparency are  two other Ffuhgeddabouditphrases: Wiggle Room and It is what it is.

Financial newscasts? – The overused Bottom Line, Parameters, 24/7.
In scores of headlines and lead paragraphs in the New York Times, you will find a tiresome variation on the word: Define. viz.  Re-define, Re-definition.

The following ran recently in the newspaper of record:

• The only way to achieve 'success' in Afghanistan is to re-define what success means.  
• Players, coaches and leaders in the sport can all take steps to re-define the culture. FIFA gives a Fair Play award to a World Cup team and ... Goal.
•  What we are seeing is not a long-term unemployment problem of a measly 10%, but a cataclysmic re-definition of society wherein all sense of ...

How do we want to define success?   Many people work really hard every day, but they are incrementalists. ...

• “ Just perhaps it is you that must change and look inside your soul to re-define your values.”

Another big bugaboo which brings up my bile is using the term “grow” as a transitive verb in a non-agricultural context.  Example: President Clinton promised to grow the economy.  (Oy Vey).  I grow radishes in my garden. (That’s OK).

As an advertising copywriter for more than half a century I studiously eschewed two terms which still drive me crazy when I hear them  a score or more of times in  TV commercials or even see them in  a New Yorker Ad. They are State-of-the-Art and Legendary.

“JNB International, Inc. specializes in the design, production, and
installation of state of the art car washing systems.”

“Kuwait Finance House, Bahrain - a leading provider of Islamic commercial and investment banking services - announced plans for the establishment of a state-of-the-art industrial park in the Kingdom of Bahrain.”

Etymologists of yesteryear who would write of the legendary exploits of Jesse James or Paul Bunyon and Washington Irving of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow fame, would cringe at the assault on one’s senses of the Legendary Jeep Wrangler, the Legendary Mohegan Sun, the Legendary McDonald’s Quarter Pounder and, the Most Legendary Torqueflite model i A-727,

Here is a press release I just received from the Carlyle Hotel on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

THE CARLYLE HOTEL
ANNOUNCES 2010 FALL SEASON
IN LEGENDARY CAFÉ CARLYLE
PAULO SZOT, JOHN PIZZARELLI & JESSICA MOLASKEY,
STEVE TYRELL, WOODY ALLEN
SET TO APPEAR AT NEW YORK’S LEGENDARY NIGHT SPOT
 

New York, NY (June 28, 2010) -- The Carlyle Hotel (Erich Steinbock, Managing Director)  has announced the 2010 fall season of performers at the legendary Café Carlyle - the “favorite of all New York nightspots,” says Liz Smith - another New York legend.
 

Hal Drucker is a voting member of the Drama Desk and the Outer Critics Circle, and co-author of From the Desk Of: Work Styles of the Rich and Famous.