Monday, December 18, 2006

Lucy's awards

I guess I'm easily amused, but I almost choked on my apple when I read today's Lucy Kellaway column:
Award for worst e-mail sign off. For some time now "Best" has been the preferred way to end a business e-mail, and very sloppy it is too. Best what, I always wonder. It's like saying Happy instead of Happy Christmas.
A silver medal goes to an e-mail I was sent this year that ended:
"Hope that was a value-add, Allbest." Actually no, the e-mail was terribly dull and so not a value-add at all.
Gold goes to this sign-off: "Please revert by c.o.p. Best." This contains an insidious new bit of jargon (revert instead of reply), a sporting term (close of play) and an acronym. It is close to genius to combine the three with such brevity.
The award for the Most Sustained Mixed Metaphor goes to Mark Fields of the Ford Motor Co who was quoted in the FT using four consecutive clichés in the same brief paragraph. "I've given the Ford team the same challenge. It's time to play offence. It's time to take back our future. The clock is ticking."
Do read the whole thing.

1 comment:

Rebeca said...

I did read the whole article. Her fresh sarcasm at the non-sense of some 'catchy' phrases is, to say the least, comforting. However, most importantly, I clicked and read another column she wrote on 12 October 2008, comparing the current financial crisis with the Mary Poppins film. It's the same comparison that N. Fergurson drew during his lecture at the LSE. I wonder, to who of them did this idea occur to before?? Piensa mal y acertarás.