Overused phrase of the day

"That's just wrong on so many levels!"

I wish I knew where this one originated. With my pop-culture-exposure pattern -- totally immersed in a few things, completely oblivious to (usually) the things EVERYONE talks about at the water cooler -- for all I know it could have been a widely-quoted line from some sitcom or movie I missed.

But, okay, so it's a line that was really funny the first time I heard it, not so much now, what's the big deal? I guess I'm tired of hearing it used by people who don't really have that "level" themselves -- people whose idea of a "sense of humor" is just parroting all the funny lines that everyone else is saying. And in this case, it's overkill -- when all you're really saying is "that's weird", it's annoying to pretend you see more than one "level" on which something is "wrong".

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Okay, anyone else use the Yahoo toolbar, or am I the only tool? Precisely two days ago, the little you've-got-mail icon began popping up almost at random, with the exceedingly helpful mouse-over message "You have 0 new messages". And you have to click it to shut it off, or it won't pop up when you DO get mail. CHRIST that's annoying...

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Yeah, I'll be sending a check to the Red Cross. [The company I work for] is going to match employee contributions as they did for the Tsunami and 9/11.

As I was telling Jamey (currently experiencing San Francisco-esque gas prices -- and more? -- in Atlanta), the more I read about New Orleans, the more obvious it becomes that 1) this calamity was a de facto casualty of the war in Iraq, 2) the handling of the situation screams "incompetence" at every level of government, and 3) I'll take anyone's money right now if they want to bet that Bush's approval rating isn't going to SHOOT UP in the next poll.