Cliches versus Idioms

[Valerie Please]

Caesar probably said "kai su, teknon" [και συ τεκνον]... just saying, you might want to be a bit less ready to call people "semi-educated".

anyway, with regard to cliche, one surely wants to avoid them, unless that's part of it, part of the thing, part of the style, the conscious choice. Idioms are slightly different, as they are often regional or date specific. "Et tu, Brute!" is a cliche in literary circles. But if your eastern European cleaner said it to you... it's contextual. I say, write what you want. Cliche, boring, derivative. It doesn't matter. No one aims for originality anymore, so why bother. As long as you have a thousand little thumbs-up, you're golden.

Ugh, an Eastern European cleaning lady. OF COURSE!

Now, my Mexican cleaning lady is well-versed in Greek and always shouts, "kai su, teknon" when she burns her finger flipping the tortillas she cooks me. Because Latin too easy for her, isn’t it?