“We aren’t in Kansas anymore.”

From the Wizard of Oz, the phrase has been used so much it is beyond a cliche.

In the beginning it could stand for a statement of contrast, with the bottom line that Kansas

is a calm, understandable, and some would say bland place.

As a person who lived there for 10 years I can tell you the phrase is too close to negative to be anything but irritating.

I heard it used again on some television show yesterday and actually moaned.

You want lack of originality. You want predictability.

Go to Hollywood where they demonstrate it every time they trot out the cliche.

Every time I heard “We aren’t in Kansas anymore” I automatically think they are saying “We’ve run out of ideas to pen an original line about a changing situation”.