In
1985,
Quarterback Joe Theismann of the Washington Redskins
broke his leg (or perhaps more accurately, had it broken)
after being hit by the New York Giants' Lawrence Taylor
(in one of the more painful Monday Night Football replays
of all time).
TRIVIAL PURSUITS
.
In Abraham Lincoln's famous Gettysburg Address, he
noted that "the world will little note, nor long remember
what we say here."
That turned out to be anything but the case, of
course.
What
has
been forgotten by many over time is who the featured
speaker at the dedication of the Gettysburg cemetery was
- and what, in addition to a reputation as the nation's
greatest orator - he had accomplished in his noteworthy
career.
The original plans were to dedicate
the cemetery on Wednesday, September 23, and David
Wills, an attorney who had purchased 17 acres of
land for a cemetery to honor those killed at the
Battle of Gettysburg earlier that year, invited Edward
Everett, widely considered to be the nation's greatest
orator. to be the featured speaker.
However, Everett told Wills and his organizing
committee that he would be unable to prepare an appropriate
speech in such a short period of time, and requested that
the date be postponed - and it was, until Thursday,
November 19.
Everett, by the way, had served as:
Secretary of State (1852-1853) under President
Millard Fillmore, filling a vacancy created by the
death of Daniel Webster),
U.S. Senator (1853-1854 - he resigned),
U.S. Representative (1825-1835),
governor of Massachusetts (1836-1840),
United States Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
Plenipotentiary to Britain, and
president of Harvard
University (1846-1849).
He also ran (unsuccessfully) as Vice President on the
Constitutional Union ticket in the election of 1860.
He would die before the end of the Civil War in 1865.
November 12, 2008 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Recently
Lexicographer Jeremy Butterfield has, in a new book titled "A
Damp Squid: The English Language Laid Bare", compiled a list
of what he says are the most irritating phrases in the
English language (the book is about misused and overused
words).
Of course, for my money the list – while it certainly
has some viable candidates – suffers slightly from the
inclusion of a few phrases that either aren’t in common
usage on this side of “the pond” – or at least
haven’t been uttered with any real frequency in my
earshot.
Regardless, this week, I’d like to give you a chance
to vote for THE most irritating phrase from that list – and
the chance to offer some candidates of your own.
Truth be told (and why would I lie?), Mr. Butterfield
highlighted ten most irritating, while I tossed in a couple
for good measure.
Interestingly enough, it was one of my
"additions" that garnered the most votes (
13.5%
) - "
to be perfectly honest
" (as one reader noted,
"I always wonder...what is the differentiation between
honest and perfectly honest?"
).
That was just ahead of the
12.9%
that opted for "
at the end of the day
."
The rest of the list ordered out as follows:
8.8% - 24/7
7.5% - Shouldn't of
6.9% - With all due respect
4.7% - It's not rocket science
4.1% - Fairly unique
2.8% - Absolutely
2.5% - At this moment in time
2.2% - I personally
0.9% - General consensus
0.0% - It's a nightmare
Now, as it turns out, a full third of this week's
respondents had suggestions of their own - and, IMHO, most
of these were better than what made Butterfield's list.
On this "other" list were the following:
Irregardless (which, as many pointed out, is not
even a word)
It is what it is
I could care less (which, as several readers
pointed out, should be couldn't care less)
You know
Basically
110%
IMHO (since this is the title of my columns, I
chose not to take this one personally)
My bad
Like
I'm just saying
The perfect storm
Synergy
Outside the box
I don't disagree
Having said that
Let's take this offline (particularly when no one
is online)
Any phrase including paradigm
Be that as it may
Been there, done that
Can I ask you a question
Wall Street versus Main Street
In actuality
Just so you know
Let's touch base (the touching thing bothers me,
noted a reader)
Net net
On the other hand
It's a no-brainer
Tee one up
The reality is…
Top of mind
Awesome
Circle back
You betcha
Now, I also gave folks the chance to pick a SECOND most
irritating phrase, and while just
5.6%
said they were "good with one", once again
"other" drew the most votes -
23.4%
.
Here again, "to be perfectly honest" topped the list (
16.8%
), followed again by "
at the end of the day
", and just ahead of "
with all due respect
."
In other words, there was a broad-based consensus that
those three phrases were, in fact, "most irritating."
As for the "other" second choices, here again there was
an admirable consistency.
"Irregardless" topped this grouping as well, while "outside
the box" wasn't too far behind, and was just ahead of
"reach out to".
Other "other" second candidates were:
Awesome
By the way
Been there, done that
"have a blessed day"
"I mean" like, you know, if you
didn't mean it at first...
"less" when "fewer" is
correct
"Let's dialogue" .... aargh, why
can't people just say "let's
talk"!
"Supposably" (I don't know how to
spell it since it is not actually a word).
"uh" (spoken by everyone, myself
included, to fill those pauses. Ok, it's not a
phrase, it's just one word, but I wish we could all
break the habit and just have silence when we are
grouping our thoughts.)
6 or one-half dozen of the other
Deep dive meeting
Despite popular belief
Enclosed please find
Especially after the campaign, it's "what
Americans want...or think...or believe".
For all intents and purposes...
free gift.
(A gift by nature is free.)
From an HR perspective, I abhor the phrase,
'getting a seat at the table."
General mis-use of words:
i.e.
using Mute instead of Moot.
Drives me nuts!
gone missing
Have a nice day!
Here's the thing...
How about "as per the attached" --
aaaarrrgghhh!
I bad.....at least say it with proper
grammer...!
I considered "no question about it" and
"the fact of the matter is" but I think that
I have to go with "I would agree with that"
and its perverse cousin "I don't disagree with
that."
I don't like it when people say they were
"impacted" by something or someone.
I hope that never happens to me, because I understand
it is quite painful.
I hate to tell you
If someone gives me something, we might say,
"He gave it to me."
If someone gives the group something, we might say,
"He gave it to Joe, Mary, and myself."
Wrong!
If you have any questions, please call
MYSELF!
Instead of saying He said or She said, it's He
goes or She goes
And then there's the inclusion of the word LIKE in
every sentence
Actionable
Footprint
Value proposition
If you will
30,000 foot level
Low hanging fruit
Mission critical
Incentivize
It is what it is
it's an opportunity
Know what I mean
Like, you know
Low hanging fruit
Main Street vs. Wall Street
Moving forward
On the same page (
"....most of the time we're not even in the same
book,"
explained one).
Paradigm and synergy
People saying
"literally" when they mean
"figuratively"
Random - Generations X and Y overuse this phrase
like you wouldn't believe.
Robust
The perfect storm (seriously, it is used way too
often and should be banished from the English language
- both sides of the pond, noted one).
The thing of it is.......................
The truth of the matter is
These ones
Throw under the bus
To tell the truth
Using the word "and" instead of
"to," such as "wait and see."
Whatever
What's Up.....
When someone uses the word "ax" instead
of "ask".
e.g. I'll ax her if she wants to ride with us.
Why is that so widely done?
I'm in the South.
Is it the same in other regions?
Where it's at, where are we at, etc.
You know
You should...
(I firmly believe no sentence utter to me should ever
begin with the words "You should".
That said, I rarely get my wish. LOLOL)
That being said
Not a problem
Here's the thing
To make a long story short
Very unique
I need to pick your brain
And then, of course, there were comments that stood
above the rest:
"I beg to differ with
you." No, I don't. I don't beg. I simply hold
a different belief or opinion. Why do I have to beg? I
think I'm allowed without asking permission.
"When I hear "With
all due respect" and "To be perfectly
honest", I know I'm about to get neither respect
nor honesty."
"When I am having a very
bad day and my wife asks how my day is going, the response
is, "I haven't killed anyone yet." This will
change the topic and I don't have to talk about
work."
"I'm just happy I
have avoided adding any of these to my regular
vocabulary."
In response to the question, "do you have anything else
to say", one reader said
"To be perfectly honest, no. :)"
One reader really had some fun with the topic, noting
"At the end of the day, I personally think, at this
moment of time, and with all due respect to others, that it
is absolutley necessary to banish "the perfect
storm" from our lexicon. It's a nightmare, that
someone shouldn't be fairly unique and thought 24/7 to
find an alternative to "the perfect storm". To be
perfectly honest, its not rocket science, to form a general
concensus that "a perfect storm" should be, at
the end of the day, banished from the English language to
be replaced by "a nuclear winter". Thank you, my
fellow English linguists."
And that reader, followed this by saying,
"You're not going to revoke my subscription for
this, are you?!?!?"
But this week's
Editor's Choice
goes to the reader who said,
"I hope that some of my co-workers have the opportunity
to read this."
Thanks to
everyone who participated in our survey!
Feel free to print out the
results and post them prominently (may I suggest a yellow
highlighter?).
You can also create a buzzword bingo game for your next
boring meeting from the above! (see
http://isd.usc.edu/~karl/Bingo/
- and the new Make your own Custom Buzzword Bingo
option).