I work with a bunch of really smart sales and technical people that have an
uncanny knack for butchering the English language. About a year ago, my
boss and I started keeping a list that we call "The Board." I thought you
might enjoy a few of the gems we have collected via e-mail or while in
meetings:
For all intensive purposes
We need to broil it down
I wanted to go straight to the horse
I have built a close niche team
He is a loose gun
Throw icing on the cake
I am venomitly opposed to that idea
I don’t want to cry chicken
I’m going to put all my ducks on the table
We need to shuffle the dice
I don’t have a photogenic memory
I want to get ahead of the 8 Ball
I don’t want to throw him under the table
He has been under the sheets for a while
Their business is cylindrical
This deal is starting to get feet
(Thanks to C for this great stuff!)
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4 comments:
These are wonderful. I particularly like the one about putting all your ducks on the table.
In a similar vein, some years back I heard a local newscaster reporting on an endangered animal that was on the "brink of distinction."
I hope to someday be on the brink of distinction.
: )
This is great. I edit news at a weekly and one of our reporters --- a knowledgeable guy and a good writer --- routinely makes similar mistakes. For example, he's more than once used the phrase "eye soar," but it's so far been in reference to things that were so tall that they blocked someone's view. So, in a sense, it was appropriate. He also has another, "pass mustard," which is the bastard son of "pass muster" and "cuts mustard." It slipped by me and a copy editor brought it to my attention, pointing out that not only was "pass mustard" wrong also it brought to mind someone with some horrible digestive problem.
Ha.
Pass mustard. That's great. Kind of like Custard's Last Stand.
I'd really like to understand better the brain processes involved in writing and how they're different from those used in reading. I can totally see how someone who knows it's "eye sore" could have a little internal mutiny in which his hands type "soar." I sometimes catch myself typing "hear" in place of "here," which scares me because some people might think I don't know the deference. (Just kidding.)
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