Candidate Phrases for forced retirement

Most of my candidates for immediate phrased in retirement derive from scream-inducing overuse or misuse in advertising. One that is currently grating on my ears and nerves is from the trailer for the movie "Grand Torino" describing Clint Eastwood's starring performance as "prime vintage." OK, I get they want to say that this role is in the style of early Eastwood yet not merely a stroll down nostalgia lane. Yes, Clint is still a gifted actor but prime vintage sounds like an oxymoron. The combination of terms seems to be putting two separately tasty ingredients into a gag-inducing stew.

A friend has a similar reaction to the beer commercials touting their product's "drinkability." As a former English teacher, she is a stickler for proper language. These ads irritate her but I hadn't particularly  noticed until she proposed her candidate for retirement in response to my rant. 

My guess is she - and every other self-respecting English and/or Journalism teacher - would join me in ranting long and loud about the overuse of a phrase in news writing which I just read again at the end of a post by an editor of a major newspaper: "Time will tell."  Well, duh....

Now we're really talking cliche and the reason cliches are cliches - because the point is obvious. In this case, two opposing views of a situation are discussed leading to the conclusion that both can't be true at the same time. More reporting, more information, more testimony will be required to make the judgment of which side is right/true/correct; therefore, "only time will tell."  Or will it? Does the truth always become public knowledge? Do conflicting opinions always find resolution or a court of last resort? Is history always the judge? Or can writers/reporters ever be so creative, so innovative, so industrious as to be able to avoid using cliches? Only  time will tell.