creating colloquial expressionisms

i just wanted to point out that the nation's paper of record has a blog dedicated to exposing their own grammatical insurrections. as a linguaphile of sorts, i find this a neverending meta-amusement. i often tend to think back over my own words --spoken, written, or typed-- musing over the alternate meanings that could be deduced or which word trends are getting stale. voila! in this week's nyt-grammar-blog post, the "cliché watch", phillip corbett draws attention to phrases that have been recently overused in the times.

what shakes out? most notably are clichés that seek out a friendlier face to our current financial predicament. seeking to communicate the economy as a game-- fishing, gambling:
-the colloquial expression “on the hook,” comparing sordid economic futures to being as stuck as a worm used for fishing
-blackjack terminology. in one stretch of business coverage last month, the phrase “double down” was used three times in four days

i think this is a little bit frightening. why are is this huge crisis being façaded as a light-hearted game? and whose game is it? i don't think we readers are being taken in, necessarily; i'm not insinuating that the media is PULLING THE WOOL OVER THE IDEAS OF JOE AMERICAN. but it does seem vexing that the metaphors are all so casual, that the only way to handle a crisis of this magnitude is with non-ironic entertainment comparisons.

durham, partyham

attractive local designers flywheel are throwing the cutest party with free pbrs on thursday night!

O B A M A 

ON THE DOUBLE

truly demonstrable of their goodheartedness is that they've posted their gorgeously created wallpaper so you don't have to pull posters off streetlights in order to snag one.

never-ending financial story NEFS

kiplinger (finally! someone!) has decent advice to normal people about what they can do in the current meltdown. i'm not a big stock-owner myself... my 401k is unfortunately invested in far muckier mire. however, i do think this is the first evidence i've seen of someone trying to appeal to common sense and rationality in financial matters-- something that has been sore lacking of late.