A turn of phrase is a distinctive expression. The world is full of them, and probably has been since the origin of language. But recently I’ve noticed a trend – no, a pandemic. A God-awful outbreak of people wanting to be “original” by creating a new word, phrase, or motto. These new turns of phrase are such a wrong turn that they are riding shotgun with Eliza Dushku – the irony here not being only that she starred in a movie entitled Wrong Turn, but that the making of this deplorable movie in itself was a “wrong turn” for all those involved.
Since we’ve just started a new year and I recently read an article about a college who created a list of words to “retire,” I’ve decided to explain why I think some things should be not just retired, but packed up and shipped off and shoved into a dusty corner of an old closet to be forgotten about forever.
1. YOLO
“You Only Live Once.” No shit. Thank you Captain Obvious. Humans do not have nine lives. Pretty sure we are ALL aware of this. This is not an acceptable excuse to make poor decisions or be dumb. Adding “YOLO” at the end of, I don’t know, any statement involving reckless partying or dangerous sexual habits does not exempt you from consequences just because you’re young and hip. Or dope. Or whatever they say now. Case in point: the rapper who was drinking and driving and tweeted it – cuz, ya know, YOLO – and shortly thereafter wrecked and died. Irony? I don’t know. I personally prefer acronyms for other pointless things that are a bit more interesting, such as You Obviously Like Owls. Maybe YOLOreos…
