As long as we're throwing out phrases to be banned...

Like "penultimate" and "xxxx Nation," I nominate "Groundhog Day."

I can't believe that such a B-rate movie has taken on such a long life as the ultimate description for something that happens over and over.

 

Same goes for ``Catch-22.'' Half the time, it's used wrong anyway.

 

"Catch-22" and "irony/ironic" definitely need specific qualifiers to be valid.

Both terms are used incorrectly more often than used correctly.

 

Have never used, will never use:

Untracked.

Chipped in.

Groundhog Day

M*A*S*H Unit

Etc.

 

Even as a staunch anti-banner, I think I can agree that "Groundhog Day" has run its course.

 

Forgot to add: I'm suddenly embarrassed for the last 13 times I used "Groundhog Day."

The three or four before that, I'm OK with.

 

Untracked always seems wrong.

 

Every time I read a story containing the phrase "Groundhog Day," it feels like, well, Groundhog Day.

 

"Claude Badley got untracked and scored 28 points to lead Putztown over Bumfucked, 78-56, on Friday."

If something gets untracked, a train for instance, there will be a crash. That's not good.

If the team's leading scorer finishes with three points instead of his average of 24 a game, then something derailed him and caused him to become untracked.

Claude Badley was on track Friday night, scoring 38 points yada, yada, yada.

 

"all smiles" especially in photo captions where the subject is, um, smiling. What's wrong with happy?

"off the schnide"

"senior leadership"

 

never heard of off the schneid, but sites on my google search make it seem over used.

Good call with "senior leadership." I called a coach the other day for a feature and on an underclassman and the coach kept pushing me to do a story about the team's senior leadership. I told her that I'm a stringer and only do stories that I'm assigned to. As I talk to her about the subject of the feature the coach says that the underclassman is only as good as she is because of the senior leadership on team. That made me chuckle. She kept pushing for me to do a separate article on the seniors after our interview. I told her to contact an editor and pitch the story to them. I told my editor she might contact him and he laughed at the idea.

 

"stepped up" -- what would high school girls' quotes be without it?