Banish These Phrases

* Stay hydrated -- I work with a number of "running enthusiasts" whose conversational palette is of the numbingly dull "minutes-per-mile/calories-burned/heart-rate/need-to-lose-another-2.25-pounds" variety. But it is only when they constanly blather about needing to "stay hydrated" that I get the urge to chew glass. Is the phrase "drink water" too jejune for the "sports science" set?

* Very unique -- Unique is an absolute, meaning one-of-a-kind. Therefore, the "very" is flat-out erroneous. The next time you attempt to qualify this perfectly solitary word, ask yourself a simple question: Would I say "extremely extreme?"

* Low hanging fruit -- This is the most offensive of the great business-cliché triumvirate ("thinking out of the box" and "thirty thousand foot view of the customer" being the others). In case you live in another orbit, the phrase refers to particularly "ripe" or easy opportunities. Unfortunately, it sounds like a clunky euphemism for elderly genitalia.