LANGUAGE CORNER
Hitting Milestones
Watch Out for the Rocks!
Alex McKale, a research and development manager at Hewlett-Packard, heard the phrase "hit a milestone" not long ago and thought it odd. "Wouldn't hitting a milestone damage the vehicle," he asked by e-mail, "and thereby hinder further progress?" Well, yes. A metaphor should work literally as well as figuratively, and hitting real stones isn't a positive experience. Holding that thought, we'd expect to find the athlete in this headline in the trainer's room, at least: "Veteran Defenseman Bodger Hits Milestone." And this poor little guy had a real run of bad luck: "Calvin, 11 months old, has been hitting developmental milestones."
A quick Nexis search found some variation of "hit a milestone" used more than 1,000 times in less than a year. That may not be worth losing sleep over, but why risk the risible? We're better off letting people and things reach milestones or pass milestones, not run into them.
— CJR, Jan/Feb 1999
