No they weren't!

I have a pet peeve. I know people who use this phrase mean well, and I know what they mean, but the phrase is all wrong.


I was watching a report on a murder yesterday. A man was having an affair with another man's wife. The wife broke off the affair saying, "We can never be together unless something happens to my husband." So the jilted lover went to the husband's place of business and shot him. Not only did he shoot the husband, but he also shot one of the husband's co-workers. The reporter's comment of the co-worker -- "He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."


No he wasn't, he was right where he was supposed to be at the time he was supposed to be there. The nut who killed him was in the wrong place at the wrong time. If this poor innocent victim had been in bed with another man's wife, and the husband came in and caught them and beat him to death, then you could say he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. If this poor innocent victim had been in someone else's home with a hood over his face going through their valuables, and the homeowner shot him, then you could say he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. If this poor innocent victim had been standing out in the middle of a metroplex freeway at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, and a semi-truck ran him down, then you could say he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But being at work at 8 o'clock in the morning is being in the right place at the right time. Saying he was in the wrong place at the wrong time smacks of placing the blame on him. It was the killer who was in the wrong place at the wrong time!