'Waterboarding,' 'organic' banished

SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich., Jan. 1 (UPI) -- Michigan's Lake Superior State University has released its annual list of overused words and phrases -- including "perfect storm" and "organic."

The 33rd annual List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness was built using nominations submitted on the school's Web site and narrowed to the final list by a committee, the school said.

The school banished "perfect storm," "organic," "wordsmith," "authored" and "random."

The list also touched on current events, banishing "waterboarding," "post-9/11," and "surge" from the English language.

"Webinar," meaning a Web-based seminar; "Black Friday," the busy shopping day after Thanksgiving; and phrases such as "it is what it is" also incurred the school's wrath.