"Here's a phrase that apparently the airlines..." - Quote by George Carlin
Here's a phrase that apparently the airlines simply made up: near miss. They say that if 2 planes almost collide, it's a near miss. Bullshit, my friend. It's a near hit! A collision is a near miss. [WHAM! CRUNCH!] "Look, they nearly missed!" "Yes, but not quite.
More by George Carlin
More on Language
“Just as the sentence contains one idea in all its fullness, so the paragraph should embrace a distinct episode; and as sentences should follow one another in harmonious sequence, so paragraphs must fit into another like the automatic couplings of railway carriages.”
“Normally, people believe that, if they hear just words, that these words must lead to some thought.”
“You practically do not use semicolons at all. This is a symptom of mental defectiveness, probably induced by camp life.”
More on Logic
“When I was in school the teachers told me practice makes perfect; then they told me nobody’s perfect so I stopped practicing.”
“To say that being non-judgmental is better than being judgmental is itself a judgment, and therefore a violation of principle.”
“But twice-two-makes-four is for all that a most insupportable thing. Twice-two-makes-four is, in my humble opinion, nothing but a piece of impudence. Twice-two-makes-four is a farcical, dressed-up fellow who stands across your path with arms akimbo and spits at you.”