Please Stop That

One of many funny scenes in the original “Arthur” movie is when Hobson (played by the late John Gielgud) comes into the bedroom in the morning and, seeing Arthur in bed with a girl from the night before, says, “Pleeease stop that.”

Since two weeks from today is my birthday, I want to publish this wish list, which focuses on expressions I want people to stop using.

I believe this started back when Brian Billick was the head coach of the Baltimore Ravens football team.  It was probably at the time that they were featured on the “Hard Knocks” (“Training Camp with the Baltimore Ravens”) series.  He would talk about his team having that “swagger.”  Oh, how I grew to hate that word.  All of a sudden everybody had that “swagger.”  Certain players, his team, other teams...even in other sports/leagues!  The word just became so overused.

It’s kind of like present day where the ridiculous acronym that gets written as though it’s a word – “bae” – has just choked social media.  In the movie “Saving Silverman” the question is asked, “Isn’t one and only… one?  And only?”  So, doesn’t that mean that Before Anyone Else can only apply to one person?  Stop putting it in captions for photos with four different people.  I digress.  (But, in addition to ‘swagger,’ you have my permission to stop using ‘bae’ too.)

Then there’s the music world.  Yes, there is a verbal practice that has run rampant here too that needs to be stopped.

When you are introducing your band members, please (please) – remember, this is an early birthday wish – stop putting “Mister” before every male band member’s name that you introduce.  It’s not original and is, in fact, way overdone.  I repeat, way overdone.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to point out who’s who on stage.  It’s important to let those hard working musicians get some recognition for the hard work they’re putting in.  Plus, if you adopt the, “There’s someone here seeing us for the first time” attitude, that audience member probably doesn’t know anyone’s name (in the band).

Now, yes, there is a rare exception.  Remember a few months back when Paul McCartney got up and sang with the band that was performing at the graduation party?  THEN it’s okay to put a title in front of his name (which, in his case, would actually be Sir Paul McCartney, and not Mister, but you get the point).

Otherwise, since introducing someone as “Mister” is so overdone, I’ll be repetitive too and again say, it’s not original and has gotten annoying.  Throw it in the Reject bin with ‘swagger,’ ‘bae,’ and others that really need to be retired as well (like the expression that’s rapidly rising to the top of this list, “reach out” – c’mon, just say contact or call or email or whatever).