At the End of the Day

There is a thunderous song in Les Miserables titled “At the End of the Day.”  But I had forgotten that little bit of trivia until I Googled the phrase to see what popped up.  I made an appointment with Google because “at the end of the day” is a phrase that’s starting to get on my nerves.  It seems like every pundit on both network and cable news throws it into every story and/or opinion they proffer to the masses.  I’m sure they think it makes them sound erudite but it is so ubiquitous now it has pretty much ceased to mean anything.  It’s like “slippery slope” or “I didn’t see that coming” that is making language unwatchable.  Usually catch phrases catch on for a while and then they disappear but “at the end of the day” seems to be lingering like moss on a log, and I hate it.  Not the moss, the phrase.