Last week, Northwest Airlines announced that it planned to introduce a new low-fare carrier to compete with United’s “Ted” and Delta’s soon-to-be eliminated “Song” (and of course, the mainstays of the low-fare movement, Southwest and JetBlue).

Although Catchword has not been engaged to name this new carrier, the solution is so obvious, we figured we would post it for public display so we can claim credit for it later.

For the last few years, Northwest Airlines has used “NWA” as its shorthand moniker. Given the somewhat obvious and somewhat unfortunate connection to the ill-fated gangsta rap group of the same name, one name immediately rises to the top of candidates for the new discount carrier: 50 Cent.

Other candidates that were also in contention include Too Short, Half Pint, L’il Kim, and Skinny Pimp.

We recommend against The Lost Boys, Notorious B.I.G., and Detroit’s Most Wanted. I’m no expert, but none of those seems quite right.

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As seen in CIO magazine: The Most Annoying Workplace Clichés

We hear these phrases all the time. They used to have meaning, but now they’re shorthand for “I read some books about business that I got from Amazon. I am one of the business people.”

As professional word people, we’d just like to say: Please stop. If you’d use regular English, we’d all be so much happier!

15 MOST ANNOYING CLICHES
As identified by the Accountemps survey of 150 senior executives

1. At the end of the day
2. Solution
3. Thinking outside the box
4. Synergy
5. Paradigm
6. Metrics
7. Take it offline
8. Redeployed people
9. Core Competency
10. Win-win
11. Value-added
12. Get on the same page
13. Customer-centric
14. Generation X
15. Alignment

Posted in Advertising, Fun stuff, Language use | No Comments

We here at Catchword do not endorse the use of the following phrases. But they make us laugh. Found on the Internet; if I can find an attribution, I’ll include it in an edit.

36 ways to say someone is stupid

Big hat, no cattle.
A few clowns short of a circus.
A few fries short of a Happy Meal.
An experiment in Artificial Stupidity.
A few beers short of a six-pack.
Dumber than a box of hair.
A few peas short of a casserole.
Doesn’t have all his cornflakes in one box.
The wheel’s spinning, but the hamster’s dead.
One Froot Loop shy of a full bowl.
One taco short of a combination plate.
A few feathers short of a whole duck.
All foam, no beer.
The cheese slid off his cracker.
Body by Fisher, brains by Mattel.
Has an IQ of 2, but it takes 3 to grunt.
Warning: Objects in mirror are dumber than they appear.
Couldn’t pour water out of a boot with instructions on the heel.
He fell out of the stupid tree and hit every branch on the way down.
An intellect rivaled only by garden tools.
As smart as bait.
Chimney’s clogged.
Doesn’t have all his dogs on one leash.
Doesn’t know much but leads the league in nostril hair.
Elevator doesn’t go all the way to the top floor.
Forgot to pay his brain bill.
Her sewing machine’s out of thread.
His antenna doesn’t pick up all the channels.
His belt doesn’t go through all the loops.
If he had another brain, it would be lonely.
Missing a few buttons on his remote control.
No grain in the silo.
Proof that evolution CAN go in reverse.
Receiver is off the hook.
Several nuts short of a full pouch.
Skylight leaks a little.
Slinky’s kinked.
Surfing in Nebraska.
Too much yardage between the goal posts.

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