This is a copy of my email to WNYC Listener Services:

PLEASE get rid of that awful programme "The Takeway". I don't tune in to WNYC to hear loud, mindless chatter (and it's often VERY loud)--I can get that from the talk shows on other stations. Several times I've had to check to see if I'm actully listening to AM 820 or to the Z Morning Zoo.

Alison Bond

Teaneck, NJ

Also, I'm surprised to see that my comment will appear on the website "momentarily". Do you actually mean "momentarily" or do you mean "in a moment"? They are not the same, though I realise that the error is in keeping with the low aspirations of "The Takeaway".

I'm a pretty with-it guy, but I have never -ever - noticed that the meaning of the word "gay" has been gradually morphing to mean "hopeless". Or, perhaps, I'm just not hanging out in the right homophobic crowd where the word "gay" is regularly used as a pejorative.

In any case, I think "The Take-away" should be a little more careful about legitimizing this kind of bigotry. It just makes your new radio show seem SNARKY and MISINFORMED.

I'm a pretty withit guy, but I have never ever noticed that the meaning of the word "gay" has been gradually morphing to mean "hopeless". Or, perhaps, I'm just not hanging out in the right homophobic crowd where the word "gay" is regularly used as a pejorative.

In any case, I think "The Takeaway" should be a little more careful about legitimizing this kind of bigotry. It just makes your new radio show seem SNARKY and MISINFORMED.

Can we kill "At this point in time" ? NOW !

I phoned in this A.M. but at the wrong time...catch that.

My nomination goes to: "At the end of the day." Unless of course when used literally.

"That being said..." After giving an opinion or supplying "expertise" about a particular issue a pundit will play it safe and say: "that being said" and go on to give reasons why the commentary previously given may not be the case. We are back to the beginning with no answer to the original question of why something happened, the second half canceling out the first.

Another phrase that has to go: "Ya think?"

I listen to NPR every morning as I'm getting ready for work. I count on NPR to keep me up to speed with a good mix of the top stories and some undiscovered nooks and crannies of the day's events. One thing that I like about NPR is that it tries to treat the news with the appropriate level of respect and seriousness and not dumb down for its listeners.

Today, The Takeaway did just that with its interactive reader poll of "What Phrases Would You Retire". Surely, a war based on erroneous, misleading and manufactured "evidence" that has cost Americans thousands and Iraqis hundreds of thousands of lives (not to mention billions of dollars) is worthy of more respect than a tissue-thin audience poll. At a time when Americans are starting to take a long, hard look at media complicity in the malfeasence of the Bush administration, The Takeaway, as a new program, would do well to be on the side of improving the content of our newsmedia rather than further debasing it by whole-heartedly embracing shallowness. There is nothing lighthearted about this war, the lies that lead to it, or the lies that sustain it.

"The phrase that would love to have retired is: "No problem," when I say thank you to someone. If I thought it was going to be a problem, I never would have asked them in the first place. So please -- let's retire it. Thank you."

"The word that I would retire is luminous -- like it's used in book reviews. Unless something is written on a neon, like on a neon sign, it is not luminous."