Greetings:

As shown in this week's Smorgasbord feature, Oxford University has complied a new list of the top 10 most irritating phrases used in common conversation and by the media. Here is their list. Please add your own annoying phrase to the list.

1 At the end of the day
2 Fairly unique
3 I personally
4 At this moment in time
5 With all due respect
6 Absolutely
7 It's a nightmare
8 Shouldn't of
9 24/7
10 It's not rocket science

_________________
- Kirt Blattenberger
RF Cafe Progenitor & Webmaster

Going forward (my most hated)
Best practices
The way I see it
From the get go
Ramp up
In my honest opinion

Think outside the box


You need to internalize it


I could care less. ---- Come to think of it I REALLY hate that one. If you could care less, then that means you are caring more than not at all. Now if you COULDN'T care less (which is the correct way to say it), it means you are already caring as little as possible and you cannot care less. God I want to smack people when they say that.

"It is what it is"

and i echo FL Techie's disdain for - "I could care less" (those people need to be smacked)

1. why not?

2. how hard could it be?

3. it's not in the budget.

4. no, i'm not going on a food run.

5. that's offensive


Not necessarily in that order...

We need a paradigm shift......

"We're not out of the woods yet.."

Especially when utilized by the weather channel during hurricane season..

The worst one of all time:

"Speak truth to power".

That one makes me want to puke.

Since the day I read this thread, I have realized how much I despise business jargon.
http://dontcostnothing.wordpress.com/2007/04/26/commonly-used-business-jargon/

"But isn't it time we drew a line under this and moved on?"
Aaaagggghhhh.
And why do journalist only ever say about a politian's most recent banality "xxx made it clear"??
Is "made it clear" a euphemism for "telling a lie"?
Whilst many biz-speak buzzwords make me cringe, this one in a tender submission from a well-known SONET source, made me hoot with laughter.
They were clearly and grossly non-compliant with the spec, but instead of saying so, they merely responded "we support an alternative solution".
Positive spin is wonderful.

in the news (again)
"pregnant man" ... annoying and factually inaccurate, its a bearded lady; if they have a womb, its not a guy..

And furthermore, Lucy Kellaway posted her column inches yesterday in the Financial Times, announcing that august newspaper's (or merely her own) awards for Business Twaddle of 2008. Amongst the many pearls of detritus spewed forth by (mostly) economists and Business Management School types (who should really get a proper job instead) there were these
1) "In our base case simulation there is an upside case that, err, corresponds on the flip-side of the down-side case in kind of an adverse direction".
2) The spin expression for firing someone is now "offering you a career up-grade, as from your CV, your carrer is clearly adversely limited by the horizons in your present employment, so we are releasing you to enhance your talents and skills elsewhere."
As she notes (tongue in cheek) "the judging panel felt this represented a step change in the existing strategy tree, and laddered the concept to a whole new level." Quite so.

_________________
At bottom, life is all about
Sucking in and blowing out.

Although the Media just love their meaningless phrases, the one that always winds me up is "We have been led to believe . . ."

This really p****s me off! They are a Media / News Organisation*, for Christ's sake! If they've picked up a lead, make the damn effort to verify the story for yourself! Don't just 'pass the buck' onto your 'source' and thus remove yourself from any responsibility for reporting it to the World. Make the effort & do your job properly!

* Readers of this will know who I have in mind. For obvious reasons, I am not going to be specific.

_________________
Quantum Mechanics - the dreams that Stuff is made of.