shopworn

• “One tiny mark, a slight rip or fold, any sign that any human being had touched the book and the publishers would call it shopworn and not refund any money for an unsold book.”

  So, dustjackets: WTF?

• “hit-the-grit" circus, and were writing to the big shows for prices on superannuated or "shopworn" animals.”

  Ainslee's, Vol. 15, No. 5, June 1905

• “And the nuclear priesthood to borrow a phrase from the father of our "Nuclear Navy", Admiral Hyman Rickover still uses many words and concepts that were already shopworn decades ago.”

  The Huffington Post: Rory O'Connor: No Word for Meltdown: Nukespeak Returns

• “Or better yet, might we construct a model that is both consistent with the evidence and more beneficial than either of those shopworn choices?”

  The Huffington Post: Clay Farris Naff: Are We The Reason For The Universe's Existence? The Anthropic Principle Reconsidered

• “In my opinion, Richard Powers in The Echo Maker is attempting to retain something of the experimentation of modernist psychological realism -- or at least its goal -- but as I indicated in my post on the novel, its lackluster execution in this book is for me another signal that the technique has become increasingly shopworn.”

  Point of View in Fiction

• “As with most of its deals, it also allowed the company to avoid acknowledging wrongdoing, leading to that now-shopworn phrase in the newspapers: "GE did not admit or deny the allegations.”

  The Huffington Post: Richard (RJ) Eskow: In the Dark: Crimes, Capital Crimes, And GE Capital Crimes

• “It is now a shopworn trick in postmodern fiction to undermine the veracity of a narrative, so readers may be inclined to avoid "The Curfew.”

  The Wall Street Journal: Tender and Tense

• “Both Republican women have sought to capitalize on the nationwide frustration with Washington by depicting the Democrats as shopworn familiar faces who have failed to bring new jobs to the state.”

  The Washington Post: Election 2010: Fiorina, Whitman try to head off Democratic victory

• “As a work of philosophy, it was that same tired materialism that was shopworn in HG Wells 'day, merely taken to a logical extreme.”

  MIND MELD: The Best Genre-Related Books/Films/Shows Consumed in 2009 (Part 1)

• “Why I Write Science Fiction: An Apology by Alan DeNiro: "If science fiction is a choice that one makes before writing a story, then dismissing it part and parcel simply can't make sense, especially if particular writers are trying their darndest to reinvigorate the usual, even shopworn tropes-or invent new ones altogether.”

  SF Tidbits for 1/19/09

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