By the end of any given year, I'll bet most people who are sensitive to language can identify a certain number of catch phrases that became so virally popular that they would rather stick a knitting needle through their own eardrum than hear the offending Phrase one more time.

Yes, I just referenced "viral," but I'm not "done" with that term yet. "I'm done," or "Done!" pronounced with peevish self-righteousness, however... well, to use a slightly older expression, I'm so over that.

Maybe Lisa Kudrow's catch phrase on The Comeback, "I don't need to see that!" will inspire a new one, "I don't want to hear that!" The ones I am really sick of hearing right now are "at the end of the day" (does everyone on TV have to say this to make themselves feel they have just prounced a Deep Thought???) and "that being said" (not the least of this phrase's offenses is its grammatical inconsistency re. verb tense). As they said in my high school years, gag me with a spoon!

All of this leads up to my recent experiences in the job search industry, where one of their favorite pieces of jargon seems to be "red flag." There is a "red flag" in your job history, your references, your behavior during the interview, whatever. (See, we can't get away from these phrases -- "whatever" was a biggie!) Or they use it as a verb and "red flag" you.

To keep these blogs to a manageable size, I'll make this "Part 1" and post how this all relates to hubby next time. I will say that all of this talk of "red-flagging" can make the job searcher feel inadequate. Is it the scarlet letter of the New Millennium?