in defense of "stupid" sayings

The very thought that Lake Superior State University wants to banish words from the language makes me perversely interested in using them. Maybe I'm just touchy because their very first entry criticizes a phrase as being "contract lawyer-speak," as if there was anything wrong with that.

More seriously, they are just wrong, wrong, wrong in criticizing the phrase "black ice" as being meaningless. Maybe they don't have that up in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan/Ontario, but where I come from black ice is a thin layer of transparent ice that takes on the color of the road. I guess in the Twin Saults, ice is always thick and opaque (and probably year-round....but I digress). Ah, the limited world view of the provincial.

I could go on with this exercise, but do I really need to?