“When do idioms devolve into clichés?” Tom Connelly writes. Tom’s question is an interesting one. His verb choice hints at one of the main differences between the two: Idioms are generally thought of ...

I have trouble avoiding clichés. They’re lazy forms of writing and speech. Admittedly some clichés get us through life. Their repetition is helpful to inspire or affirm life. But clichés rarely ...

Question: We are doing over our beach place and trying to avoid the usual cliches: the blue and white color scheme, starfish, wicker, etc. The trouble is, we can't think of another style that really ...

We seem to have burst the dam. Our corniness cup runneth over. Use whatever over-worn phrase you like. We have collected dozens of such cliches -- and we have declared open season on them. Last month, ...

The path of the DJ-monikered musician who turns from static-laden samples toward live instrumentation is well trodden, but if we’re to believe the buzzing zeitgeist—that hip-hop is in its last throes ...

This year's ExxonMobil Summer Chills production at the Alley Theatre will be Sherlock Holmes and the Crucifer of Blood, allowing company actor Todd Waite to once again play the master detective in all ...

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Seven over-used phrases that should never pass your lips Gretchen Hirsch’s book Talking Your Way to the Top: Business English That Works (Prometheus Books, 2006) contains lots of ideas on how to win ...

Do you know someone who drinks like a fish and sweats like a pig? Actually, fish don’t drink very much, although they appear to, and pigs don’t have sweat glands. Nonetheless, we continue to say and ...

Vomiting out a banal and compulsory introduction that doesn’t really add any value to the article is probably a branding (kind of) cliché in itself. We all know what branding is, so let’s skip the ...