Sunday, July 29, 2007

Murphy's Law

The week o' Murphy's Law ended yesterday when I was stuck in a colossal traffic jam (11 miles in 2.75 hours) and then proceeded to try to break the middle finger of my left hand.

Because typing sucks, more on that later.

Instead, a grammar rant:

Cliche is a noun.  It refers to "a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought."

Cliched is an adjective.  It describes something that is overused.

In other words...

Correct:
  1. The jokes in the last episode of The Simpsons were tired and predictable, to the point of becoming cliches.  D'oh!
  2. So many people imitated Lucille Ball's style that it became cliched.
Incorrect (oh, so incorrect that it makes me weep for the English language):
  1. Apple's style is becoming a bit cliche.  (Quoted from macrumors.com.)  You meant cliched, as you're describing the style.
Also?  "Nitsche" is not the term you were looking for when describing a small, particular market/audience/fandom.  You meant niche.

Eek.

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