Thursday, April 24, 2008

Demons are often summoned ...

... by the mention of their names. You try to point out gently that when a particular bit of display type is the first thing to come to mind, it probably comes to mind because -- up, up and away! -- it's the display type you always see with a particular story. And thus it gets to be a cliche in a real hurry. As happened long ago for, say, "pain at the pump."
The paper that provides today's example (from a 1A "alternative" form) is as prone as any to a syndrome the wise John McIntyre has identified: It isn't a cliche when I use it! But could we at least point out that it used "pain at the pump" in a subhed as recently as Sunday?

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