A Personal Campaign
I was at the hair dresser the other day, and as I was getting my hair cut, I overheard a conversation between a client and the receptionist that went like this: Customer: "Should I just go ahead and make my next appointment now?" Receptionist: "Let me go ahead and check the book. Okay, yes. Let's go ahead and do that." On another day, I was sitting in my car waiting to pull up to a clown face at a fast food drive-thru, and as I waited for the car in front of me to move on, I overhead this conversation between that driver and the clown face:
Clown: "Okay, you can go ahead and place your order now."
Driver: "Can I substitute the chocolate cake for beans?"
Clown: "Sorry, no substitutions."
Driver: "All right then, go ahead and include the cake."
Clown: "Will there be anything else?"
Driver: "No, that's it."
Clown: "Okay, just go ahead and pull up to the window."
On the phone making an appointment with an exterminator:
Exterminator: "Will that be just ants or do you want us to go ahead and include other pests?"
Me: "Just ants, please."
Exterminator: "Okay, Ms. Wood, I'll go ahead and put you down for Tuesday morning."
Calling a friend last night and getting his answering machine: "Hi, this is Joe, I'm not home right now. If you'll go ahead and leave your name and number I'll go ahead and get back to you as soon as I can."
When did this ubiquitous phrase sneak into the English language, and what did we say before it came along? This is my personal campaign: to eradicate the phrase "go ahead and" from the English language.
Staring tomorrow, I think I'll just go ahead and do that.
Re: A Personal Campaign
greez from switzerland..
Tanja