Cliché Rotation Project

Posted on Jan 24, 2007 in Language, Misc. | 2 comments

UPDATE! Mathew Baldwin saw fit to include the first of my updated cliches on his site. Thanks, Matt! He’s also got round two of the CRP going.

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First, if you don’t regularly read Matthew Baldwin’s oddly-named blog, Defective Yeti, well… that’s up to you. But you should. It’s as fun as a barrel of monkeys, not to mention as American as apple pie.

As evidence of this fun, he’s currently asking his readership to participate in the Cliché Rotation Project. I’ve submitted four entries that are as cool as a cucumber. But, as they are likely too full of baloney to be among the winners, I’ll post them here.

Old & Busted	New Hotness
“Keep your eyes peeled”	“Put your deadlights on high beams”
“Bought the farm”	“Took out a third mortgage on the double-wide”
“cold as ice”	“chilled like a Frappuccino™”
“bite the hand that feeds you”	“pimp-slap the mailman with the welfare check”

None of them are good, of course. The first entry’s word deadlights pays homage not to Steven King, whom I believed invented the word in one of his dozens of mediocre works, but to pirate slang as I discovered listening to Treasure Island over at Librivox.

Astute readers may notice four intentional clichés in this post. Any others are unintentional and I ask your forgiveness.