“Pepcid stops heartburn before it starts.” “Let’s stop teen drinking before it starts.” “With proper diet, you can stop high blood pressure before it starts.” I utterly loathe this phrase, this idea of “stop X before it starts.” Call me nitpicky if you want, but it’s a pointless, mean-nothing phrase that is inherently impossible. You simply cannot physically stop something that hasn’t already started. Can’t do it. Stopping implies an arrest in motion, so if there’s no motion, there’s no stopping.

Think of it this way: Your car’s out in the driveway right now, right? Stop it before it starts. Go on. It’s not running, not moving, but go stop it. See? Short of yanking out the alternator, I don’t know what you could do. And even that isn’t stopping it before it starts, it’s preventing it from happening, which is what all these other “stop it before it starts” people actually mean.

So, please, just stop it.