Clichés

I always had a laugh at the M & S adverts which drivelled on about 'these are not ordinary strawberries/raspberries - these are M & S berries, grown on sunny, rainfree, Scottish hillsides, blah, blah, blah. To which I, formerly a berry picker, always wanted to add ' and picked by children, benefits cheats, gypsies and illegal immigrants'. If people knew the tricks berry pickers employ to increase the weight of their baskets, they would grow their own fruit as I do.

NB: My categories of pickers do not illustrate my own predjudices - they are lifted from the DM school of journalism.

Yes, I have been on one for 2 months . My beautiful Grandson was born a bit early aftere an emergency c-section . That night we were all delighted with his healthy apearence , and next day he was rushed to ICU . So roller coaster was a mild version of my experience. Heart in my mouth , trying to be happy , one step forward 2 steps back . Anyway he is home now, growing , engaging , and and delicious . I guess I am off the roller coaster now , and ready to enjoy the ordinary day to day ‘bumper -car ‘ of life !

What about 'these doors are alarmed'?

Mine are all culinary..... pan-fried, oven-baked or, worse still, hand-baked (poor hand).
Sometimes essays are written to describe dishes on menus, all the more disappointing then when the resulting offering bears no resemblance to the picture created in my mind! Hrmph!

To take a 'rain check'? Still not quite sure what that means . I think it means to consider something, but when I first heard it I really thought it was something to do with the weather!

Someone rang the other day to see how we were getting on but apparently rang to 'touch base' - she continued to say she had a 'window' on Wednesday when she could see us and could see us at 'ours' if we preferred depending upon 'what yous are doing'
I agree with 'amazing' being 'well' over used! When something is good how can it be 'wicked' and when I asked my son if he would like a cup of coffee the reply was 'Cool'. Whilst writing this the weather man has told me that the weather will be 'quieter'. Oh I could go on but I'm 'shattered'

goldengirl Fri 16-Sep-11 22:10:43

To take a 'rain check'? Still not quite sure what that means confused. I think it means to consider something, but when I first heard it I really thought it was something to do with the weather! hmm

This has a real meaning here in Australia (and I suspect in the USA). When you go to buy something on special, but they've run out, they can give you a 'rain check' ie a note that entitles you to buy the stuff at the lower sale price when they re-stock. Some advertised sales say 'No rainchecks' which means it is almost a certainty that they have very few of this item, and are just using it as a bait to get you in.

Good job they don't use that terminolgy here Joan I wouldn't know to take my brollie with me or not when I went shopping.

Oh yes - that trick of having very few of the very cheap item to get you into the store has been used for the 30 years I've lived her. Believe me, they've copped it when we've been had.

'Cheaper prices' is an expression I hate. You can have lower prices and cheaper goods, but cheaper prices? Sounds wrong to me.

I got one of my most disliked clichés in an email today: 'give me a heads up'.
I know what it means, but where on earth does it come from? Across the Atlantic, I presume.

Think its already been mentioned but it drives me mad at work, 'going forward', 'moving forward' instead of plain old 'from now on'. If work didn't change things on an almost daily basis, we wouldn't have to 'move forward' so much anyway and we wouldn't have so many damn 'issues' to resolve and we'd all be a lot less 'stressed'.

Well I never knew that! Thanks Joan. I wonder how many users over here actually understand the meaning? I'm sure they think it's a weather issue as I did.

Strictly speaking this is a spelling mistake rather than a cliche but it's mis-spelt so often by apparently educated people that it's becoming a bit of a cliche and I wish people would get it right. When describing or advertising a job where the main duties are giving advice it is an "adviser", not an "advisor". Advisor is an American spelling and as we all know they just can't spell.

I also prefer English spelling but wonder why Gransnet uses American spelling eg colour and color, the word colour has a red underline indicating it is spelt incorrectly. Why would an English forum use American spelling.

I was wondering that*Faye*, I was beginning to think I was wrong and they were right with all the wavy red lines under what I thought was perfectly correct spelling.I thought to "take a rain check" meant to cancel something and do it another time.

How can an attractive person be 'well cool' and 'hot' at the same time?

they're not, well I'm not.,,bored yes, (except for today when we had a stand up comic' lovely guy).

The French are getting more and more inclined to use English phrases that are not quite right - my favourite is giving your home "un re-looking"...