f/k/a archives . . . real opinions & real haiku

I’m achy, fluish and grumpy enough this evening to finally put down

in pixels just how completely annoying and agita-inducing I find the

phrase “at the end of the day.” 

As a regular viewer of Sunday morning talking-head-political shows, 

and other interview-oriented presentations, such as, PBS News Hour

and the Charlie Rose Show, I have known for at least a decade that

“at the end of the day” virtually never means “before I go to bed tonight”

or “when the day in question is over.”  Instead, the underlying meaning

is more likely to be:

  “although I have absolutely no facts or evidence to

back this up . . ” 

  “contrary to all logic and reason, . . . “

  “assuming a timeframe in which we are all dead

anyway, . . . “

  “right after hell freezes over . . . ”  or

 “as the spokesperson for Group/Party X, I’m forced/paid to predict, . . . “

Maybe I’m just out of the main kvetsching loop these days, but I hadn’t

seen or heard others raise this complaint — until the repeated use of the

phrase on ABC This Week by White House Security Advisor Stephen

Hadley drove me to such distraction today that I decided to Google the

cursed cliche.   I have now learned that lots of people hate the use of “at

the end of the day” by politicians (and sports figures).

    For example, early last year, it was chosen the #1 Most Irritating

phrase in the English language by supporters of Britain’s Plain English Campaign

(“At the end of the day . . . we’re fed up with cliches,” News Release, March

24, 2005)    

Similarly, a history of the term found in GramTime News (Vaxjo [Sweden]

Univ., Jan. 2001, scroll down to Usage question #2), states:

“It should be noted that at the end of the day is one of those

phrases that irritate many people. In particular it also seems

that the phrase is used extremely frequently by British football

players and managers. In fact, as early as 1995 the readers of

the British football magazine When Saturday Comes (WSC 1995:

100) voted at the end of the day to be the most “overused phrase

which should be punished by public flogging.”

The phrase was apparently given its nefarious non-literal sense in Britain and 

spread from there to the United States.   The GramTimes News explains that it

means something like “with everything considered.'”  And says:

The 1995 edition of the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

writes that it is “used to give your opinion after you have discussed all

the possibilities of a situation or problem.” The Oxford English Dictionary

explains the phrase as “when all’s said and done” and its earliest entry

is from 1974.

As late as 1995, the New York Times was still using the phrase rarely, and usually

with its literal meaning.  By then, however, the literal meaning was almost never used

in British publications.  To my dismay — but not to my surprise — the article ends

on this pessimistic note:

“At the end of the day the phrase seems to have a bright future because

highly influential public figures in both Britain and the United States have

adopted it in their speech.”

It has always seemed to me that Republicans began using the dread phrase first 

in America — possibly due to the Reagan-Thatcher connection.   Because so much

Republican and conservative politics is based on ideology, rather than facts or logic,

the phrase “at the end of the day” [like “at the end of days’] becomes a prophecy that

they expect to be taken on faith.   

                                                                                                                   

GramTime News notes a “huge increase” in usage in American English from 1993 –  

1997 — suggesting that the Administration of President Bush #41 may indeed be the

culprit.  The influential figures given as examples as using the phrase by GTN, however,

are Tony Blair and Al Gore.  Nonetheless, it has been Republicans who have triggered my

gag response over the past few years with repetition of “at the end of the day.”   Of

course, my b.s. meter goes off when politicians of every stripe use the phrase.  (Happily,

I don’t watch sport shows and therefore minimize sports-related exposure.)

   Could it be that “at the end of the day,” being a prediction, was

considered to be less deceptive than old standbys like “at this

moment in time,” which usually signalled a falsehood or

convenient lapse of memory?

After hearing it so often, many Americans now use the phrase “at the end of the day,”

without knowing that it creates great suspicion and irritation.  Please join me in using the

power of weblogs to spread the message.  Perhaps, there will someday be a day, at the

end of which, the phrase will be given back its literal meaning.   We can then go back to

 loathing “at this moment in time” and “my present recollection.”

  Dec. 13, 2005, is Plain English Day, and the Plain English

Campaign will be announcing its annual awards – for both clear

and baffling use of English.  There are categories for government

and media, along with the Golden Bulls (for gobbledygook) and

Foot in Mouth (for a baffling quote by a public figure).  The  

Plain English Web Award is actually an honor.

  The latest News Update from Plain English (04 Nov. 2005), tells of

a study out of Princeton that I had missed.  According to its author,

Dr. Daniel Oppenheimer, “writers who use long words needlessly

and choose complicated font styles are seen as less intelligent

than those who stick with basic vocabulary and plain text.” Hmm.

dad’s armchair

hindsight is

20/40

   

      by dagosan    

p.s.  My irritation over this phrase spilled over into my personal senryu weblog this morning — see simply senryu.