“This page is devoted to those expressions so hackneyed and insufferable that they should be forever banned from the nation’s news reports.”
from Tom Mangan’s Banned for Life
Mangan is a bit of a crab, and on the curt side, but for all of the right reasons. Since this is the “holiday season” here is a relevant entry from November 17:
Rounding the Corner
Holidays bring out the trite in writers everywhere. What say we banish this banality for all time:“Christmas is just around the corner.”
The fact that I removed a “Tis the season” from a story just yesterday tells me my work is not done here.
Posted by tmangan at 11:32 AM
He also has an ongoing list of his “most hated expressions” which should be printed on a magnet and posted on every writer’s refrigerator. Here they are:
” ‘Tis the Season” at Christmas. Campaign “war chests.” Downpours that “couldn’t dampen the spirits” of all those upon whom the rain fell. “Play in Peoria” in any story or headline relating to the central Illinois town of my birth. “The good news is …. the bad news is….”
