Asking for donations can be a tricky business. While there are many generous people, it isn’t hard to find someone who is reluctant to give for any cause. After all, you can’t squeeze blood from a turnip!
Where in the world, did, the phrase come from? When I did a search, it appears it’s one of those proverbs that came out of nowhere. I forgot that “you can’t get blood from a stone,” is a variation on this, I wouldn’t recommend trying to get blood from either one.
The other day, I heard it again. Someone on a news segments said such and such is a “perfect storm.” It was the first time that week I heard this and it wasn’t about the same topic. It is time we officially admit we have a problem with the perfect storm cliché.
I went to Google and searched the phrase, “perfect storm.” The results didn’t surprise me. As of January 15, 2022 there are…
Mind you, I expect some of the general search to be about the real life event, the book by Sebastian Junger, and movie. If you search this phrase on Amazon, you get over 930 results. However, are we getting to the point that it is losing its meaning?
News reporters and interviewees are using this cliché to describe supply chain issues, the pandemic, inflation, worker shortages, data privacy, crimes, climate change, and yes, weather events. How many perfect storms can there be? Is everything perfectly stormy now?
It may look pretentious to add the accent mark in “cliché”. But it is one of those words English speakers have borrowed from French. Can anybody pronounce it correctly with the accent mark? Without it, most of us would go around saying “Klich.” Nobody wants that!
I like clichés. They have served me well over the years as an illustrator and cartoonist. I have always loved to take something we have come to expect and turn a phrase or situation into the unexpected. Phrases become clichés because they are so popular, everyone begins to use them.
I don’t recall us having a perfect storm cliché problem before the book and movie came out. However, thanks to Wikipedia, I found that “Perfect Storm” has been used at least since the eighteenth century. There must have been something about the 1991 storm that captured the imagination of Americans. Now we can’t help but describe any bad situation as a perfect storm. I don’t know if the phrase is becoming so overused, it has lost its impact and meaning.
However, what I do know is that so many people have been using the phrase in the last couple of years. Is it starting to lose its meaning? Maybe I shouldn’t care that much, but when I heard it again, the cliché began to sound like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. Wait, I am using another cliché to complain about a cliché. I’m not being very helpful, am I?
I feel sorry for the Mall Easter Bunnies this year. They rarely get the respect a Mall Santa gets. And just when people began thinking about the holiday, all the malls were closed. Perhaps that’s why this cartoon rang true for me this year. Mr. Easter Bunny, don’t count all your eggs before they hatch!
It’s safe to say nearly all of us have had to change our plans this year.
My wife and I will be attending an online Easter service. For a couple that has served and worked at churches nearly every Sunday for over thirty years, this has been an adjustment. The method has changed, but the message has not.
They said unto them, “Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen.”
Luke 24: 5-6 (KJV)
Have a blessed Resurrection Sunday, everyone!
I drew this before the Internet was a staple. It is so much easier to Google a good cliché now. A few that caught my eye were…
When I was a kid, I swore I would never use some of the clichés my parents used on me. That promise lasted until my first-born was old enough to talk. My favorite cliché became, “Someday, when you’re older, you’ll understand.” The problem with that one is I’m still waiting to be old enough to understand what’s going on. Who wants to admit that to your child? Not me!
Clichés are so useful because they deal with universal problems. They’re just too easy to use. What are some clichés you’ve caught yourself saying?
Cartoon of two girls staring at a muddy boy. One girl says, “If clothes make the man, then gross must make the boy!”
There is a mudathalon going on not too far from me. It would be a boy’s dream to compete in that. It makes me want to head out to a pig sty right now!