<!-- Begin meta tags generated by ORblogs --> </meta name="keywords" content="progressive, liberal, politics, government, edit, language, grammar, accuracy, honesty, clarity, world, news, media" /> </> <!-- End meta tags generated by ORblogs -->> Editor at Large: Irritating introductory clauses

Friday, April 15, 2005

Irritating introductory clauses

"With all due respect..." (Usually followed by something disrespectful.)

"To be honest..." (You mean you've been lying up till now?)

"Not to mention..." (Always followed, of course, by the thing not to be mentioned.)

"I don't know about you, but..." (Of course you don't know about me - you're the one doing the talking, so I'm currently finding out about you. And when it's my turn to talk - if you ever shut up - you're going to find out about me.)

"Obviously..." (Obvious to you, maybe, but maybe not to the rest of us. Are you trying to make us feel stupid - or make yourself feel smart?)

"All in all..." (All what in all what?)

"At this point in time..." (As opposed to some other point in time?)

"Needless to say..." (Then why say it?)

Readers, got any others?

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