Words and phrases that mean something

I really resonate to the phrase I now use as my blog’s title “Change Damaged Characters”.

Why?

• First, it is a term used in copyediting in the Common Proofreading Marks handy reference chart I use. It indicates that the characters (letters etc) that are circled in the text have not printed correctly and need to be altered.
• Second, because it encapsulates my feelings about the personalities and mentalities of many of the well-meaning but misguided people I meet and hear about in my long journey through life.

Another phrase I use is mucous trooper, in fact it is one of my email addresses mucoustrooper@tobiasware.com and it is my username on YouTube. What is a mucous trooper?

Simply put it is the idiosynchratic stupidity of the ‘concientious’ employee still soldiering on at the office/factory/school because “work would grind to a halt without me” even though they are infected with a contagious disease, which, consequently, spreads across the entire workforce causing a severe reduction in productivity and a potential temporary closure of business due to a viral epidemic which could easily have been prevented by the ignorant, misguided, stubborn and, above all, infectious employee taking a few days off due to illness.