When you set yourself the task of micro-managing the perfection of the human race, nothing is too trivial to issue guidelines about.\u00a0 Turns out\u00a0 now that \u201chold down the fort\u201d, \u2018Going Dutch\u201d and \u201crule of thumb\u201d<\/a> are new linguistic menaces that could offend jerks who spend all their time looking for ways to be offended.\u00a0 Me: If I want to offend such people (and a large part of me does) I would not do so by such a roundabout method as using a cliche with a dubious etymological origin.\u00a0 I would just say, \u201cHey!\u00a0 Hypersensitive jerk!\u00a0 You\u2019re a human toothache!\u00a0 Offended yet?\u201d<\/p>\n I refuse to be held hostage to the emotional blackmail of people in desperate need of Insensitivity Training<\/a>.\u00a0 Happily, such people exist almost entirely in the Professionally Aggrieved Greivance Professional Community in the Hothouses of State and Academy.\u00a0 No normal person goes around fretting about this rubbish.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, David\u00a0Mitchell deals with the *real* crisis that pertains to the phrase \u201chold down the fort\u201d:<\/p>\n