The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread: Cliches: What They Mean And Where They Come From, by Nigel Fountain

This book is a lot better in theory than it wound up being in practice. There is certainly a wealth of worthwhile material and information that one could use in order to discuss cliches. Indeed, there is a somewhat fuzzy line between an idiom that is widely known and recognized and something that has been used too often, such that its original meaning and often narrow and descriptive scope have long since been forgotten in the mindless repetition of a phrase. While it would appear obvious to most readers that the ideal way of dealing with the issue of cliches/idioms and their origins is a descriptivist approach that is long on historical and linguistic analysis, the author appears to vastly prefer a prescriptivist approach that sees him looking down on people who use such expressions in their ordinary conversation, bemoans the frequency of use of some cliches that could have a more circumscribed place that allowed for them to be used thoughtfully and intelligently in the author’s judgement, and is far too keen on making partisan political comments that make fun of Sarah Palin (sometimes unjustly) and that lament the electoral losses of HRC, that corrupt old hag who should be sitting in jail or moldering in the grave in a more just world.

One of the more notable aspects about the cliches discussed in this book is that many of the ways that cliches are used are not the way that they were originally created. For example, the titular example of sliced bread refers to among the worst bread products ever known to humankind, the atrocity of Wonder Bread, which bragged about how the (alleged) bread was bagged. Instead of the plastic bag over the horrible product that was remembered, though, it was the slicing that became the cliche. “The best thing since bagged bread” does not have the same ring to it, it must be admitted. Other expressions come from translations from other languages, sports, or interesting coincidence (like the -gate ending of the Watergate Hotel that served as the titular scandal to name them all). Unfortunately, business jargon is responsible for a great many of the worst offenders of this book in the author’s eyes, although he grudgingly concedes that in some cases (like “past its expiration date”), the cliche still has some amusement even if its proper use might be somewhat limited. Far too often, the author’s own opinions get in the way of what would be a sound discussion of what the cliche is aiming at, since something that is no longer wanted may still be usable, which makes the cliche an accurate statement of the status of a given approach or product, whatever the author may think.

In terms of its structure, this book is extremely simple in its approach–and could stand to be a good deal longer and more complete, as well as more detailed. The book begins with a short introduction. After that, the vast majority of the book (less than 175 pages) is taken up by an alphabetically organized list of cliches. These cliches begin with “affluent society” and end with “zero-sum game.” Included are some illustrations, some of them taken from historical sources which show cliches in their historical context in some cases. At times, as when the author discusses “[x] is the new [y],” the author hits upon areas that he does not wish to discuss as he considers them beyond the scope of the book, and refers the reader to outside material. In addition, the author seems addicted to scarequotes far beyond what would seem to be necessary or useful to discuss the material at-hand, as when he uses them to discuss futurologists and their fondness for pseudoscientific analysis. After this, the author finishes the book with a select bibliography and index. This book manages the unique and not necessarily praiseworthy task of both being able to use more material as well as less when it comes to the author’s biased and all-too-political approach but is not a total waste of time nonetheless.