Dumb and Dumber

I – like most people, I assume – loathe certain expressions. These are phrases I wish would never be uttered, don't know why they ever came into being, and certainly don't know why they've become so widespread, except perhaps as some cruel joke. They seem illogical or wrong, and there's something dead about them. I love that the English language is a living thing, constantly changing, but it doesn't mean I want every new cell to live. Indeed, that's why we throw up: Our body is telling us that something foreign this way comes. So we puke it out. That's what I'd like to do with the expressions – to take three particularly execrable examples – "he's good people," "at the end of the day" and "think outside the box" (about which phrase someone very clever – I wish I could remember who – once said, "Anyone who says think outside the box obviously can't"). Harsh language about mere words, granted, but I'm far from alone in getting passionate about language. (In one of his essays in Getting Even, Woody Allen writes of a character's aversion to the word "Lobstermato" – a tomato stuffed with lobster – a word so "asinine" that he "wished he could scratch the face of the man who conceived it.")
Your language is like your family. You do what you can to protect it from horrible outsiders. Cells, family members . . . I realize I'm mixing metaphors. I don't care. Though I should care if I start sounding like Andy Rooney.
 Ten of the most irritating expressions

• At the end of the day
• Fairly unique
• I personally
• At this moment in time
• With all due respect
• Absolutely
• It’s a nightmare
• Shouldn’t of
• 24/7
• It’s not rocket science

"There is a class of utterances that, when encountered, produces irritation, distress and, in some cases, the desire to kill." Fish's annoying expressions are not mine, nor do they appear to be the absolute top ones for many other people, either, but I can understand why he feels the way he does. He hates that "three-word announcement on the TV screen, 'To Be Continued,' which says, “I know that you have become invested in this story and are eager to find out how it ends, but you’re going to have to wait for a few days or a week or a month or forever.” He doesn't like

• “Sold Out,” "when you’ve been waiting in line at a movie theater for 30 minutes";
• “Closed for Private Party,” "when you’ve been looking forward to a meal at your favorite restaurant all day";
• “Back in an Hour,” "when you’ve come crosstown to buy something you need to have immediately";
• “Not in Service,” "when you’ve been counting on using an A.T.M. or getting a Coke";
• “Use Other Door,” "when you’ve gone around a long block to get to what you thought was the main entrance;"
• “Register Closed,” "when you’ve been waiting not-so-patiently behind a fellow customer with 25 items"; and
• “The role of Violetta will be sung by the understudy,” "when you’ve spent hundreds of dollars to see Renée Fleming."

Clearly, there's an anti-Big Brother strain to Fish's complaints and, more than that, an anti-If-we-only-couch-it-in-civility-we-should-be-okay strain. Clearly, too, I needn't worry that I'm the most Andy Rooney-esque complainant in this story.
Around the same time, Jeremy Taylor listed his "10 Annoying Phrases That Serve No Purpose":

• It is what it is
• It's all good
• To be honest
• No offense
• Whatever
• Don't get me wrong
• With all due respect
• Everything happens for a reason
• At the end of the day
• Going forward

More recently, I came across a list of annoying examples of CorporateSpeak – and since the office is such a breeding ground for cliches, bad ones and good, many of these have escaped out into the non-office world.

• All things being equal
• Keep me in the loop
• Let's get our ducks in a row
• All sports phrases (if you're not working at a sports organization), including: Take the ball and run with it; don’t drop the ball; just keep moving the ball down the field; we need you to step up to the plate; it’s fourth down; we’re playing from the rough; we’re in a sand trap; let’s hit it out of the park; let’s huddle on this later.
• My two cents, for what it's worth
• I've got a lot on my plate
• Going forward
• Think outside the box
• At the end of the day
• We're going to have to let you go (specifically because it aims to remain a euphemism and defy being translated into 'You're fired')

Not long ago, an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm mocked the facile overuse of the phrase, "Having said that . . . ," which allows you then to say what you really want to say, and suggesting that everything that came before was mere throat-clearing. The civility with the couching thing.
The list for this moment, in late 2010?
I'll start the ball rolling (wait, that's a sports cliche – but whatever...also a cliche):

• . . . wait for it . . .
• "It's like blank on steroids"
• "It's like blank on Prozac"
• Sentences made up of one-word sentences – e.g., He. Has. Got. To. Be. Kidding.
• Back in the day . . .
• He's Old School
• What's the takeaway?
• at the end of the day
• at the end of the day
• at the end of the day

Nu? (as we say in Yiddish). Obviously, it's subjective: I don't mind the expression "Awesome!" – indeed, I've used it myself – whereas other people want to scratch the face of those who use it (which I suppose includes me).