Cliché: a French word of course! A phrase, expression, or idea overused so much it is more likely to be used in a negative connotation (Also, a printing term when type was set by hand).

We have entered a millennium when original thought and creativity is frowned upon, judging by the abundance of clichés in our media and everyday life. Airhead celebs and brain dead politicians alike use the lingo of the media. What is the poor man in the street to do? I fear for new generations of our impressionable kids growing up without being able form a complete sentence absent the words “Like” or “Whatever.”

Here in America our politicians live and die by cliché. Sound bites are their forte, so trite phrases are about all you hear (I believe there are special academies for public officials that carefully train our politicians and civil servants in an official-speak language that bears little resemblance to everyday English).

Turn on TV news and listen to any government official’s verbiage. Phrases such as, “The end of the day,” “The whole nine yards” (Actually refers to a Scotsman’s dress kilt!), “We give 110 percent” (Hmm, 6 pounds of what, in a 5 pound bag?), “Going forward” (as opposed to going backward?), and let us not forget the ever popular “24/7.”

What self-respecting local hack…er, politician could live without the phrase, “Let me speak to that issue” - they would be utterly helpless. Another favorite would be “At this moment in time,” along with the evergreen, “I, personally…”

The English respondents were scathing in their comments and obviously their public servants aren’t much more erudite than ours. “To be honest” was one particularly despised phrase signifying to most that it means the user is usually dishonest!

“By the end of play today,” “Can’t get my head around it,” “Don’t just talk the talk, you got to walk the walk,” “Lessons will be learned,” “Actually,” “Brilliant,” ”You know?” “To be fair,” and so on. Makes you wish a new Winston Churchill would come along and show us how to speak precisely, (and with clarity) once again.

We in the optical field are no strangers to cliché-ridden language. “They’ll (new glasses) be fine, you just have to get used to them,” or “You’ll look like Sarah Palin in these!” and the ever popular, “But we made them according to your Doctor’s prescription!”