Underusing the Overused

My dictionary says that a pundit is a learned person, but in today's society, it means someone with a lot of opinions about politics and either a radio or cable talk show. A maven is an expert, but usually you see it used to describe Martha Stewart--people seem to assume there's something vaguely feminine about the word. Snarky was not in my dictionary, but it means snide and facetious. Critics are snarky. But I am sick of these words, and I'm trying not to use them. I also have sworn off "a potent stew of..." This is used to describe music that blends differnet genres in a new way, e.g. "Little Bobby Ray Mandell's haunting songs are a potent stew of grungy guitar, reggae backbeats, and suave, R & B-ballad vocals." (That's all made up, thank god.) Anyhow, I almost caught myself using it in an article the other day. No more potent stew! Maybe impotent stew, though. Like, Hobastank is an impotent stew of crap and shit. On the sincere side (that's without snark, kiddies) , I am very fond of Jim Croce these days. That's Lefty's Best New Music July 2005 Recommendation: Jim Croce.