"Letting the genie out of the bottle!..."

Most of the time, the use of the expression "letting the genie out of the bottle" (and derivatives) denotes that the speaker is discarding useful rhetoric in exchange for theatrical effect. Its usage precedes sensationalist hooey that is frequently neither well-thought-out nor factually supported. Often it's wholly uninteresting as well.

I hereby declare a pox on people who continue use this phrase.

Further, I declare a double pox on people who use it in the context of some politically-oriented teary-eyed soliloquy.

And I declare a triple pox on people who use it as a headline for an article![1]Knock it off!

[1] This article excluded.

Want to comment? Send an email to willkg at bluesock dot org. Include the url for the blog entry in your comment so I have some context as to what you're talking about.