Belated recognition of a call for originality

I actually got an e-mail today asking if I'd done any tips recently. The sender wondered if his spam blocker had somehow caught a tip. You like me! You really like me! Or at least one of you does. Anyway, I took that as a call to pump out another tip. And I won't bore you with tales of how busy I've been, but I have.

Too busy to call to your attention in a timely fashion Bob Baker's rant about the lack of originality in newspapers. He proclaimed April 19 (yes, that's yesterday) National Originality Day, calling on all newspapers to ban from their pages the overused word and phrases passion or passionate and baby boomer. He make a good case and a fun read (), even if I called it to your attention too late to join the one-day boycott. But why stop at one day? What are some other overused words and phrases to boycott? Perfect storm? Paradigm? Plamegate? Heck, that's just the P's. C'mon, which ones offend your sense of originality?

And maybe, like me, you were too busy Monday or Tuesday when the word came out to go read the Pulitzer winners. But make a point of reading at least one. As a regular reader of the Washington Post, I'll tell you that if you're not reading David Finkel and Robin Givhan regularly, you're missing out on some fun. And the national security and corruption reporting by the Post, the New York Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune was classic watchdog reporting of which we need a lot more. And, of course, the hurricane coverage by the Biloxi Sun Herald and the New Orleans Times-Picayune was truly inspiring. If you didn't read it when it was fresh (or if that memory has faded), go back and read it now. You can read all the winners at the Pulitzer site. Let me amend that earlier statement: Make a point of reading a half dozen or more.