HACKNEYED PHRASE

Waipa Post, Volume 45, Issue 3210, 30 July 1932, Page 6

HACKNEYED PHRASE

Our Competition-Editor (says the Post" of London) has been "doing his level best,", with a "formidable array" of "hired assassins," to give the cliche its "quietus." This "laubable object" "has its points," but it would be "going against the grain" to permit him to "have the last word." "When all is said and done," the cliche has had an "honourable past," and has still a "promising future." Our language, original as it is, is so "sickled o'er" with these pale shadows of paler thoughts, that it would be doing "irreparable harm" to the "rank and file" of "budding authors" to deny them the "incontestable advantage" of using the clich as a "present help in time of trouble." It is often "haven of refuge" for the "poor devil" "writing against time," and invariably offers "the line of least not only to the "slaves of the pen," but to the "worthy citizen" who is called upon to invent "on the spur of the moment"-a "rousing speech," a "biting tirade," or merely a few "felicitous remarks" on the "pressing matter" which we all "have at heart." As we have been "at some pains to show," if one's "life depended upon it" there would be no "insuperable difficulty" in the "thankless task" of uttering a few "airy nothings" on this "engrossing topic" of cliches. "In the long run," "beyond a peradveriture," even the "insatiable reader" would get "fed up to the teeth" and "cry a halt," and "stave off the evil, day" by "playing up to the gallery," and "roundly asserting" "in no uncertain - voice" that clinches (f?or example, "the economic blizzard") are what they were" in the "good old days."—'From the Morning Post.