Over used unnessary phrases

Careful, feetlebaum, you will have the pregnancy and pole-vaulting 'communities' after your blood!
If you really enjoy waffle, you should have listened to Maria Miller trying to explain why Cameron (that well known friend of newspaper folk) is dismissing the main Leveson recommendations. If only he had the guts to face interviewers himself, especially John Humphreys.

Exclamation marks are also called 'bangs', or in less polite society 'dogscocks'.

Oh, and one that has me yelling in incoherent rage at the screen:

"It went down like a lead balloon" - the exact opposite of what is meant!

The phrase was, and is, "It went OVER like a ..." After all, a balloon made of lead (and I know the Mythbusters did make one that flew) would be expected to go down extremely well - in fact it would plummet.

Personally, speaking for myself, like, [sic] I would use "It went over like a pregnant pole-vaulter", but that's me for you.

I am irritated by the unnecessary use of 'set' in headlines...

"Police set to question Fred Smith" - surely "Police to question..." covers it?

"Papers set to ban use of 'set' in headlines" I could live with...

I agree with Ana, it's mainly just a joke and it isn't surprising everybody picks up phrases that become very prominent. And sometimes it appears no-one understands what they mean. Or gets them wrong. Or mixes them up. But sometimes a cascade of verbal junk is used to conceal or avoid meaning. 'Lessons have been learned' usually means 'we got it wrong but we aren't going to say so'. And we all know what 'your call is important to us' means.

`We are learning lessons' especially when said by politicians.Grrr.

....!!! [Dr Strangelove moment]

Y'gotta let rip sometimes, Jess [hand hovers over exclamation mark but, wow, look at the self control....]

And when doing proper writing I am so restrained. I think I might have allowed myself one in the whole of a long book!!!!!!!

Yes, Sel, you are quite right.

I'm sure that's true of headlines, absent, but on a forum it doesn't seem quite so bad. Like Jess, I find I just can't help myself...is there any cure?

The post about exclamations marks was a while ago but I've only just got here and I thought it was interesting to point out that in the days when journalists phoned in, dictating their copy from a public hone box, exclamation marks were called screamers. When I started out as a journalist, the rule was, the fewer screamers you used, the more effective they were.

Yes, indeed Greatnan, being kind is my default mode. It's so important in life don't you agree?

I wonder what I say that's totally repetitive and irritating [the S.O. is too kind to say anything to me]? I know I'm always saying 'I remember' on here, but can never think of an alternative to it . And I'm always talking about lavatories and cephalopods. But I'm digressing...

I tell you what, sometimes I feel as if I will scream if I hear another plump faced old Etonian boy using the word reform reforms reforming government and so on. A euphemism for tinker, rehash, dismantle, make a total mess of and sometimes cut e.g. welfare reform

crimson you are nearly right! I used to actually keep a tally of the "withits" by putting lines on whichever page of the paper I was reading when she rang, then striking through at every fifth one. But she is a true friend, and phones me almost every day when Mr P is away, makes out it is just for a natter, but I know that she is really checking on how I am, as she knows that the "black dog" sometimes gets to me. She also is pretty good at completely mangling some words and phrases, bless her, but I'm so thankful to have her as a friend.

ooops should be too keen not to keen as this is Pedants' Corner *sorreeeee!"

Not to keen on the expression social cohesion bandied about by some politicians, usually means there isn't any. What are they like?

It gets so that you don't listen to the rest of the conversation but just wait for the next 'withit' I guess.

crimson try saying to him "I've told you a million times not to use that phrase"

A friend of mine who is only 49 seems to have developed a sort of verbal tic of saying "with it" very frequently and at odd stages of a conversation. For example, during a telephone conversation earlier today, when discussing a local race horse trainer that she dislikes "he really isn't a very nice man, with it" followed shortly by "I took the dogs for a long walk in the forestry commission, with it."

It's been getting progressively worse, to the extent that Mr P will often ask "have you heard from Withit today?"

Thank you, Sel, I see you just intended to be kind.

"Let me be clear..." usually said by a politician, and we think 'if you were clear, we wouldn't see through you any easier than we do' - "Let me make it clear..." might be more acceptable.

Same old same old. End of.

Is anyone else fed up to the back teeth of hearing about other people's dreams

Greatnan you asked what point I was making reminding you that you didn't like 'The University of Life' I merely thought you might wish to repeat yourself in case people missed it on another thread. You also ask if you should flatter yourself if someone researches or remembers your previous posts. By all means do so but the reason it stuck in my mind was that I thought it was quite dismissive of the person who used the phrase in the first place.