The most irritating phrases in the English language
There are those who wince and curse whenever a TV pundit or sports spieler speaks the familiar words, "at the end of the day." This usually announces that what follows will be empty of meaning. Even when the pundit has something of consequence to say, those six words anaesthetize the listener, encouraging them to miss the point. No wonder Jeremy Butterfield’s book, Damp Squid: The English Language Laid Bare (Oxford University Press), places "at the end of the day" right at the head of the "Top 10 Most Irritating Expressions in the English Language."
My own reaction to this champion banality differs slightly, for personal reasons. It induces in me feelings of nostalgia for my youth. In the middle of the last century, when I was a junior sports writer, "at the end of the day" was already marked as laughable and those who used it were suspected of pretension. Whenever it appeared in a story, my mentors on the sports desk of The Globe and Mail would sigh, roll their eyes and otherwise indicate their contempt for careless writing. I suspect I enjoy it now because it was my first journalism cliche, the first lodged in my memory by the disdain of knowing colleagues.