For Years, Exec Compiled a List of Co-Workers' Malapropisms

The Wall Street Journal reports on the retiring of a Ford sales exec whose farewell email to colleagues came with an unusual attachment—a list of more than 2,200 verbal gaffes he catalogued over the years during meetings and conversations, with details on who said it and when. It seems that Mike O'Brien wrote down his first such mistake on a whiteboard in 2014, and his "Board Words" then became legend. Some of the examples cited:

• "We need to make sure dealers have some skin in the teeth."
• "We need to talk about the elephant in the closet."

• "Let's not reinvent the ocean."
• "Too many cooks in the soup."
• "I'm not trying to beat a dead horse to death."
• "We have a better program, but the competition has more foot on the ground," the company's US head of sales once said in a meeting, before quickly realizing he was going to make the list. "Wait, is it 'feet on the ground'? Dammit O'Brien!"

The full story has more, and the accompanying photo has all of them written out for those who want to enlarge and see. A post at Autopian notes that while it might seem to some like a waste of time, the list became a useful morale-builder in the office. (More malapropism stories.)