The Most Useless Words of 2007

Do you roll your eyes every time a newscaster calls a coincidence a "perfect storm"? Cringe the thousandth time a teenager invokes "random"? The faculty at Lake Superior State University shares your vexation. Here are some selections from the school's list of words and phrases to be "banished" for "Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness" in 2007:

• "Perfect Storm"
• "Webinar" (web seminar)
• "Waterboarding"
• "Organic"
• "Wordsmith"/"Wordsmithing"

• "Post-9/11"
• "Surge"
• "X is the new Y" (e.g. "Cold is the new hot")
• "Black Friday"
• "Back in the day"
• "Random"
• "Under the bus"
• "It is what it is"

(More words stories.)