Odds and ends from the subs' desk

Just a few odds and ends from the past couple of weeks on the subs' desk.

1. A reporter wrote about the "problems that are ripe in the industry" - couldn't work out if this was an unfortunate typo or a misunderstanding of the phrase. Made me smile anyway. Obviously, he meant 'rife'.

2. A few nice tautologies that our writers supplied (and didn't make it into print):
Damning indictment
Expendable pawns
Panacea to cure all ills

Here's an expendable pawn

3. One writer talked about something being "increasingly critical" - not sure how that works!

4. Lastly, a couple of great phrases. One of our IT systems was described by a senior manager as "a lego set that is one big brick" - and in the same meeting he said that some of our company websites "look as though they haven't been designed, they've congealed"...

Now that's a 'damning indictment' if ever I heard one!