The book I am currently reading (not listed in Books I Like on the left, by the way) contains this sentence:
A tough customer who was determined to leave it all on the field, Somerville, like many of his teammates, played way above his head.
Let’s see. That’s three cliches in one sentence.
A tough customer . . . .
leave it all on the field . . .
played way above his head.
A major New York publisher released the book which prompts the obvious question: who lets this stuff through? It’s bad enough that the author wrote that sentence, but where is the editor who corrects it before sending it to press?
Want to know something else? I like the book itself.
I just wonder how offenses to the English language hit the promised land of publishing.
And it makes me even more diligent to avoid cliches.
Like the plague.