Today’s Overuse of an Expression Award goes to: Breck Mickelson, Nicholasville

They’re talking about putting a huge Jack Nicklaus signature golf course over off US 68 in western Nicholasville. (Ugh. They only just finished the lane expansion over there…) It would be a golfing community, similar to The River in North Augusta, with houses and townhomes averaging $500,000 apiece.

Breck Mickelson, a Nicholasville resident, is understandably perturbed.

“We didn’t want to live in the city. That’s why we moved out here.”

I’m with Breck, really. US 68 (aka Harrodsburg Road, aka my favorite way to get to my parents’ house) has gone to crap in recent years, with construction (notably Southland Christian Church, which seemingly quadrupled in size) and added lanes out the wazoo.

I actually used to be a proponent of widening Harrodsburg Road, and it really does help traffic congestion to have those extra lanes, but now I think I was short-sighted. With Harrodsburg widened, now people are going to want to build up all along it, just like what happened to Nicholasville Road. We’ll lose ancient farmhouses and traditional stone fencing. We’ll lose old trees and rolling farmland. We’ll gain…shopping outlets, and a golf course? (There’s already a golf course along Harrodsburg, thank you very much.)

So yes, I am with Breck Mickelson. I agree with him 100%. And when he said,

We need 660 houses in Jessamine County like we need a hole in the head.

I thought that was pretty clever.

But then he said,

We need more traffic on Harrodsburg Road like we need a hole in the head.

Now come on, Mr. Mickelson. I know that redundancy can be powerful, but the cliche “like we need a hole in the head” is powerful enough. Redundancy only cheapens the sentiment.

In this instance, we need redundancy like we need a hole in the head.

(See what I did there?)