For whom the sun rises ...

Sometimes you just have to marvel at how ego can warp one's world. I'm thinking specifically of an episode at work the other night. Space in the section was exceptionally tight, the story list was exceptionally long and getting longer. Clearly, something had to give. Pity the poor night ace who phoned A Certain Columnist with the news that The Column was being held for one night. One. A Certain Columnist, a professional(?) journalist with years and years of experience,  threw a tantrum befitting a 2-year-old -- wait! 2-year-olds don't swear. at least at our house -- all because A Certain Columnist was being expected to take a turn in the squeeze machine. The night ace, every inch the professional that A Certain Columnist is not, calmly explained that night aces are not to be spoken to that way and hung up. I don't know that I will ever have much(any) respect for A Certain Columnist again.

Barb, at WildGeeseFibres, mentioned a few days ago that there are some phrases that make her crazy (or words to that effect). The other copy editors and I love to play this game. In addition to those she mentioned -- 'give us a sense of' and 'in harm's way' -- the flatulence abounds. Here's some more low-hanging fruit:

on a daily basis -- daily

move forward -- proceed or advance

partner with -- 'partner' is not a verb

impact upon --  i have lost the battle on this, but i can't help it. it's 'affect' or 'effect,' depending on the context and without the 'upon'

text someone, email someone -- sorry. Another lost battle, but these aren't verbs, either. Confession: I am as guilty as everyone else ...

grow a business -- business may grow, but you don't grow one. Think expand, build, contract, or merge. corn grows, as do children. But parents raise kids, they don't grow them.

brand a product or business -- cattle are branded, usually with a hot iron. ouch. There is no tidy way to say the process of associating one's product with a feeling, symbol or activity. Oh, wait. That's what marketing is!

You get my drift.