Unoriginal

As someone who tries to write, and certainly spends a lot of time thinking about language, I struggle with cliches/tired imagery. Some loon tried to prove that Bill Ayers wrote one of Obama's books b/c they both used terms like 'baleful glare' - which to me is just evidence that they both are capable of using stock phrases.

So I feel enormously self-critical for saying this, but I do find the notion of a ghost in the machine evocative, and all the more so b/c even when there is no noise-causing program running on my work computer, the speakers let out a gentle burble of sound.