Topic: Enough With The Cliches, Already
no photo
Sun 12/26/10 02:53 PM

By the way, the fact that we are habituated to make incidental use of cliches throughout our speech seems to me to be a separate issue from the use of cliches as surrogates for thoughts of any depth.

One person might use cliches while in the course of delivering a well examined thought. Another person uses cliches in place of well examined thought.

It seems to me that Lex is talking almost exclusively about the latter, and you were talking about the former.


Right, because you're no more going to eliminate cliches than you are going to eliminate the letter "E," which is probably in most cliches as well as being in the word "cliche" itself.

For me, the problem comes in when the cliche takes the place of actual thought or communication.

I mean, if you ARE literally looking for some guy named Prince Charming, that's great, but not every country uses royalty anymore and the the ones that do tend not to have a lot of English names in their royalties, except maybe England, but there's nobody named "Charming" in that batch, as far as I know.

On the other hand, if you put "Looking for Prince Charming" in your profile because that's the best you can come up with, then I seriously hope there are no unsecured weapons in your home.









It isn't just that some individuals may take the lazy course and substitute a particular cliche for more careful examination; the fact that these cliches are repeated so frequently gives many people an impression of significance/meaning or accuracy where there is none.






s1owhand's photo
Sun 12/26/10 04:16 PM
I'm just looking for my prints.

seamac's photo
Sun 12/26/10 04:50 PM


Waiting with baited breath.



Well, it's actually way better than most. I liked the way you explained the house; I thought I was going to get you on one cliche ("laid back") but your definition of that was very original and not at all what's usually meant by the term in the "standard" profile.

The thing is, this sounds like a woman writing about herself and her life -- not a woman copying random snips out of 27 other profiles. So you're in the top 2% already.





Seriously your opinion matters to me so thank you very much for taking the time to look and to respond. My writing is also important to me so your critique (coming from you as a man and an author) means something too. I wonder what I would have written if I had given it more than a moments thought??? Meaning I was feeling pretty 'laid back' when I wrote it and just let that little piece flow! If there is anything else you want to know, just ask. I am an open book. Really I am so honest that it hurts me to tell a lie. Shall I go on???? LOL


But I do mean the thanks part!

no photo
Sun 12/26/10 07:37 PM
Lex, are you seeing the glass as half empty?

I like to see the glass as totally empty...after i m done with my rum and coke.

no photo
Sun 12/26/10 07:56 PM

Lex, are you seeing the glass as half empty?

I like to see the glass as totally empty...after i m done with my rum and coke.


Assuming there IS a glass -- as a hypothetical -- I see it as necessarily half empty, half full. Or half full, half empty, if the order makes any difference.

I don't attribute any particular value-condition to it. It's not positive or negative, it's a glass with some stuff in it. If the stuff happens to be Pepsi, then that's good, and I will drink it and thereby remove any half-this-half-that issues.

My real issue here is the cliche itself. If you want to say that you're a positive-thinking person, there are ways to do that without dredging up a tired bromide that everyone else has already used to death.

Jess642's photo
Sun 12/26/10 08:13 PM

I don't think anybody here is really qualified to put it out there as a real "answer." It makes for a quick and easy brain-dead cliche, though, and I just don't think that sort of thing really ever helps anyone.



<---BA in Psych and Sociology.


:wink: bigsmile

...and I throw that line out often!laugh

Simonedemidova's photo
Sun 12/26/10 09:17 PM
How about History Repeats itself. . . ergo life will be good again at some point and then will be followed up with a HUGE letdown. . and then at some point you will be picked up again. We are after all from North America which by default makes us all Bi-polar right? Right between the north pole and the south pole. . . somewhere stuck in between. . . the rotation of the moon and sun???? HUH WTF?? LOL

no photo
Mon 12/27/10 06:32 AM


I don't think anybody here is really qualified to put it out there as a real "answer." It makes for a quick and easy brain-dead cliche, though, and I just don't think that sort of thing really ever helps anyone.



<---BA in Psych and Sociology.


:wink: bigsmile

...and I throw that line out often!laugh


Yeah, I've got some qualifications, too (not as solid as yours!) but I still don't think a thorough analysis can really be done though what someone writes in a profile and x number of more-or-less anonymous forum posts.

I just think you need more than that to assess a person's life accurately.


geektothetenth's photo
Tue 12/28/10 10:33 AM
Hiya Lex, don't know if you remember me, I haven't been around in about a year. I see you're still fighting the good fight no matter how fruitless an endeavor it is.

Please stop.

Look, I'm short, a little chubby right now, and I have a myriad of personality dysfunction and faults while battling unfair asian stereotypes. I do, however, write a pretty good profile (I think). If you help everyone else write good profiles, I'm SOL. You're ruining my chances man mad

Have a good one.

venusenvy's photo
Tue 12/28/10 11:23 AM
Ahhh if only you were King of the world, It would be a different place eh ohwell

no photo
Tue 12/28/10 12:54 PM

Hiya Lex, don't know if you remember me, I haven't been around in about a year. I see you're still fighting the good fight no matter how fruitless an endeavor it is.

Please stop.

Look, I'm short, a little chubby right now, and I have a myriad of personality dysfunction and faults while battling unfair asian stereotypes. I do, however, write a pretty good profile (I think). If you help everyone else write good profiles, I'm SOL. You're ruining my chances man mad

Have a good one.


The sad part is that those of us who can and do write good profiles gain absolutely nothing by doing so....

....i.e., of the countless number of e-mails I've received which start out "I saw your profile and I was really impressed," 99.9% of them end up with "So contact me at ********@yahoo.com so I can send you my naughty pictures."

Any other e-mails I get re: my profile are just people who want to complain and/or argue.

Which is OK with me. The whole purpose of my entire 1482-page profile is so that ONE PERSON will see it and understand what it's really about. If that happens, great.

It hasn't happened yet.

And, yes, I would love to read more good profiles. I'm not sure that's something I should plan on, though.




no photo
Tue 12/28/10 12:55 PM

Ahhh if only you were King of the world, It would be a different place eh ohwell


Not interested in being king. As an anarchist, I can't support a system in which flawed, fallible human beings are given sanctioned authority over other flawed, fallible human beings. Not that I wouldn't be really good at it, though.


geektothetenth's photo
Thu 12/30/10 06:09 AM
HIya drinker KLC, long time no see. nice to see a friendly face I remember.

Seakolony's photo
Thu 12/30/10 09:04 AM
Don't take any wooden nickels

A bird in hand is worth two in the bush

If your friends jumped off a bridge would you


JamieRawxx's photo
Thu 12/30/10 01:56 PM

Don't take any wooden nickels

A bird in hand is worth two in the bush

If your friends jumped off a bridge would you




...The first time i saw that bird commercial, you don't even want to know what i think every time i hear that saying...

no photo
Thu 12/30/10 02:08 PM
Edited by massagetrade on Thu 12/30/10 02:09 PM


Don't take any wooden nickels

A bird in hand is worth two in the bush

If your friends jumped off a bridge would you




...The first time i saw that bird commercial, you don't even want to know what i think every time i hear that saying...



Quick definitions from Macmillan (c o c k)

noun
▸see rooster more...
▸an adult male bird of any kind

JamieRawxx's photo
Thu 12/30/10 02:10 PM



Don't take any wooden nickels

A bird in hand is worth two in the bush

If your friends jumped off a bridge would you




...The first time i saw that bird commercial, you don't even want to know what i think every time i hear that saying...



Quick definitions from Macmillan (c o c k)

noun
▸see rooster more...
▸an adult male bird of any kind



:banana: :banana: rofl
I was right all along..

seamac's photo
Thu 12/30/10 03:24 PM
So due to this discussion, how many of us have taken a fresh look at our own profiles and perhaps changed - I see the glass as half full to something more along the lines of, I try to see the best in what ever is going on in my life, I try to be positive and to make the best of what I have to work with. NOT that I am saying that makes for great reading either, just an example of the top of my head...

So have you taken a fresh look at your profile during this discussion. I did but I didn't change anything. I might add to it though...

no photo
Thu 12/30/10 03:29 PM

So have you taken a fresh look at your profile during this discussion. I did but I didn't change anything. I might add to it though...


I took out "Anything you want to know, you'll have to ask."


seamac's photo
Thu 12/30/10 03:43 PM


So have you taken a fresh look at your profile during this discussion. I did but I didn't change anything. I might add to it though...


I took out "Anything you want to know, you'll have to ask."





Good for you! That line has gotten old too!

I am glad you responded because I wanted to post something about how some people fall back onto using cliches not only because they make it easy to create a profile (bad maybe but better than 'I don't know what to say, or my very fav, no response in almost every category) but also because not everyone is a writer, words - written words do not come easily to many people. Some of those many, many profiles have to have been written by very sincere, funny, bright people who have big talents elsewhere...just not in the medium of the written word. So they are at a disadvantage but are out there trying none the less.

The profiles and posts that really get to me are the ones written by English speaking Americans that are so badly written that it is a struggle to even fathom the meaning of them. Gawd, really don't they know what those red squiggly lines that appear under words even mean???