I have decided to go public with a pet gripe. It's this:

People are misusing the expression, deja vu. That's the expression. That's it. Deja vu. Nothing before. Nothing after. Deja vu.

IT IS NOT DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN!

I have been counting. And, so far this year, I have heard the expression used on broadcast radio 47 times. And each time it was accompanied by that stupid all over again part.

Here's the deal. Yogi Berra, the catcher for the New York Yankees, occasionally misspoke. Maybe a lot more often than most. He said some pretty funny things, unintentionally. He said that you should always go to people's funerals because otherwise they wouldn't go to yours. He stopped eating at a restaurant saying it was too crowded so nobody goes there anymore. He said to cut the pizza into four pieces because he didn't think he could eat six. He said that baseball is 90% mental and the other half mental. Getting the picture? These statements are silly, illogical, contradictory, oxymoronic, and so they are quirky and funny. These have come to be known as Yogiisms.

He also said that it feels like deja vu, all over again. That was a mistake. Probably unintentional. But a mistake, a funny mistake. You see, deja vu means all over again. So when Yogi was saying it feels like deja vu, all over again, he was actually saying it feels like we're doing something all over again, all over again. Redundant, maybe, a little? But still, another Yogiism.

I wondered, for a long time, if people were trying to be funny and quoting Yogi. But they never mention him. I am now convinced that these professional broadcasters believe this to be the correct usage.

So, I am beginning my campaign to stamp out this misuse. Thank you for listening to my rant!