The entertainment reporters will tell you a song, video, deal, movie, even a book, has just been "dropped." By this they of course mean released, but they can't just sat say that anymore. "It's been dropped." "It's being dropped." Okay. Will be available before it breaks?
Print, TV, and radio reports will usually tell us, "shots rang out." Shots are forever "ringing out." Would you select "shots" as your ring tone for your phone? Well, maybe a few of you might. Do shots really sound like bells?
And if the sun is out, the shots are ringing out in "broad daylight." Daylight is forever "broad." The intimation is that shots have intruded on a time when no one should be shot—daylight. The temerity of whoever pulled the trigger and disturbed daylight. They should be shot.
Of course the sun may have set, and it's nighttime. Then the shots rang out in the "dead of night." This of course means when everyone else is asleep, a shooter pulled a trigger and shot someone else who also wasn't asleep at an un-Godly hour, like in the "wee small hours of the morning." Some people have no consideration of others. The noise, the sirens.
Pictured above is Ambrose Bierce, a 19rh-century journalist, writer of some renown who railed against clichés. I think there was a book in which he compiled these hackneyed figures of speech. I don't think it was "The Devil's Dictionary," a now somewhat hard to read compilation of Bierce's definitions for professions, and words. Example: Dentist, n. A prestidigitator who, putting metal in your mouth, pulls coins out of your pocket.
ChatGpt, tells us Mr. Bierce did, like myself, have something to say about shots "ringing out."
Ambrose Bierce had a sharp, almost sarcastic take on clichés in writing—especially in his column “The Passing Show.” He mocked the overused phrase “shots rang out” by pointing out that shots don’t actually ring; they bang, crack, or explode.
His point wasn’t just literal—it was stylistic. He was criticizing lazy, formulaic language that writers fall back on instead of describing things vividly or accurately. Bierce preferred precise, concrete wording over worn-out expressions that had lost their meaning through repetition.
In essence, his jab at “shots rang out” was a reminder: don’t rely on stock phrases—write what actually happens in a way that feels real and fresh.
Newscaster all lead into the weather report by telling us that so-and-so will now, "time it all out for us." What's wrong with "what's in store for us."
Are we getting hourly-minute-by-minute-second-by-second accuracy as to when things are going to happen? They do tells us when certain weather patterns will emerge. But there is no stopwatch accuracy when things are going to happen.
Back to the entertainment people. They will describe a resurrection of an old song, TV series, movie, theme of some sort that is going to be revived as "a re-boot."
The computer people, a long time ago now, told us to "re-boot" the computer when it stopped doing what we wanted. Try again. Metaphorically, you're giving it a kick, "a re-boot" to try again and the next time hope to get it right without consciously changing anything. Einstein's definition of insanity. We've been living with it a long time now.
To the entertainment reporters, the re-boot is like the computer: someone is going to try again with what's already been tried, but they're going to do it slightly different. Stay tuned for it.
Ambrose Bierce at this point is just another dead white guy from the 19th century who never got an award named after him, like "The Mark Twain Award." or the "Pulitzer Prize."
There is no journalistic award for witty commentary, despite there being plenty of potential nominees. Humor is serious stuff too.
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