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What's in and What's Out
Dec. 1998
by the Phantom
"Yo quiero Taco Bell?"
One of the things I like about this time of the year is all those Best-Of and
Worst-Of columns that are generated. As I was sifting through all my old papers and
idea files, I started a mental list of my own thoughts on the subject. I'm no trend-setter
and I hope I don't begin to sound like Andy Rooney, but here's what I've come up with.
Maybe you'll agree with at least some of them. Here's a partial list of words and phrases
that I find particularly annoying.
Verbing nouns: such as dialoging, efforting, tasking, journaling, and
finally, my least favorite: interfacing, when referring to communication between two human
beings.
Annoying analogies: such as, my plate is full, wearing too many hats, the
whole ball of wax, putting out fires, setting it in cement, and my least favorite --
parsing anything.
Misplaced sports metaphors: such as, touching base, the whole nine yards,
leveling (or tilting) the playing field, ballpark figures, my turn at bat, and finally,
game face.
Stationery metaphors: like, being on the same page, pushing the
envelope, thinking outside the box.
And here's my prediction for the most annoying phrases of 1999:
Y2K, millennium bug, scandal (and everything related to it, like getting
"Lewinski"ed or being "Tripped"), and TEOTWAWKI -- the acronym for the
phrase: The end of the world as we know it.
Finally, gazing into my crystal ball, I've come up with the following list:
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