PPB January 2015

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I know you are wondering, so here’s
the meaning behind the title. It’s based
on a joke:
A panda walks into a café. He orders a
sandwich, eats it, and then draws a gun
and fires two shots into the air. “Why?”
asks the confused waiter, as the panda
makes towards the exit. The panda pro-
duces a poorly punctuated wildlife man-
ual and tosses it over his shoulder. “I'm a
panda,” he says, at the door. “Look it
up.” The waiter turns to the relevant
entry and, sure enough, finds an expla-
nation: “Panda. Large black-and-white
bear-like mammal, native to China.
Eats, shoots and leaves.”
If you chuckled, even slightly, at the
misplaced comma—welcome aboard!
We see them all the time—signs
with misplaced apostrophes (Employee’s
must wash hands), sentences begging for
commas, or lack thereof, and other
atrocities of the language.
Words themselves can overdo it too.
For example, you’ve heard the phrase
used to give something the proper per-
spective: “Well, it’s not rocket science.”
Unless you work with clients in aero-
space, rid your vocabulary of that one.
Here are more words and phrases on
the outs for 2015:
Like (“He was like …). Tolerable for
teenagers but not for the rest of us.
Whatever. This usually expresses con-
tempt or exasperation for the other per-
son. Best to leave it behind.
Think outside the box. This was a new
and colorful way to encourage creativity
—in the ’80s.
At the end of the day … When this
was first used, it seemed like a good
way to summarize several thoughts and
compress them into a single point. Not
really.
My bad. It’s better to just say, “I’m
sorry.”
Scalable. If a program or idea can be
expanded or is flexible, just say so.
Actionable. Ditto. It makes whatever
you are explaining sound so much more
important.
Leverage. Ugh! What does this really
mean? It just won’t go away.
Awesome. I’m guilty as charged but
(sorry) sometimes things are just
so awesome.
Reach out. I first heard this while
working with a New York agency in
2006. I didn’t care for it. But I’ve caught
myself saying it in recent years. I need
to stop.
#Hashtag. It’s so overused everywhere
that I don’t think I need to comment.
What words and phrases have worn
out your patience? Add your comments
at the end of this story at pubs.ppai.org
or email me at
Oh, by the way, if reading this article
gave you an aha moment, I hope you’ll
help it go viral. I’m just sayin’.
Words And Phrases Better Left In 2014
PERSPECTIVES
4 • PPB • JANUARY 2015
E WRITER TYPES find humor in places where others would be cross-eyed with bore-
dom—specifically misused words and incorrect punctuation.
One of the funniest books I’ve ever read is Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance
Approach to Punctuation (yes, it’s a real book and a best-seller) by British author Lynne Truss. In her enter-
taining way, she shows how meaning is finely determined by commas and apostrophes—and how disastrous
it can be when punctuation goes wrong.
Tina Berres Filipski Editor
PERSPECTIVES
w