Going, Going, Gone

Baseball remains with us, and so the cliché title of this ongoing bonus item, referring to a "home run ball" remains with us as well.  But what about "back of the envelope calculation" just spotted in the Wall Street Journal?  I've already commented on the "ticking clock" which is now obsolete but still used.  I thought it would be fun (interspersed with Periodic Table Bingo) to undertake a "Disappearing Cliché Watch."  I shall update this page as I spot new, i.e., old ones. 

The rules:

• God clichés don't count, heaven help us.  I don't need enemies or Enemies.

• Farm clichés don't count.  We still have farms; you can see one from an airplane if you look down. 

• No research.  A cliché that I spot means what I think it means, and its etymology is what I say it is.

• There are two categories:  "Going" and "Gone."  When there are enough examples it will be obvious what belongs where.

rcf 08 August 2006

Going

Back of the envelope calculation (how long will there be "envelopes?")- WSJ 08 Aug 2006
Gangbuster sales (I know we still have the "Crips" and the "Bloods" but...)- WSJ 21 Feb 2007*
"Ringtones" - A belated realization, sighted many times.  When was the last time you heard a telephone "ring?" - noted 15 August 2007
"Footage" used many, many times in Katherine Boehret's review of the "Flip Ultra Video."  Of course "footage" refers to using film, measured by the foot, although it could arguably apply to videotape (in reels) but most certainly not to memory cards, which have replaced linear media.  And Boehret doesn't look old enough to remember film cameras at all!

Gone

*I know I haven't been spotting these very avidly.  My fault, and I intend to try harder.