BOSTON -- Have you heard the bank commercial that advertises "Extreme Checking"? Does "extreme" strike you as an odd word to be associated with anything related to the boring and button-down world of finance? ("Extreme", not "checking")

"Extreme" can be defined (American Heritage Dictionary) as "drastic" or "severe." Do you really want those two words in any way associated with your kids' college fund or your retirement account?

So, what's going on?

Obviously, through overuse, the word extreme seems to have lost its ability to convey anything, well, truly extreme. A far less extreme extreme began finding its way into the world of sports, for instance, about 20 years ago. Remember being stunned by some of those early feats associated with "extreme sports," like skiing down part of Mount Everest with only the aid of a parachute? Or the early Extreme Games, which included such gonzo -- and let's face it, extreme -- events like sky-surfing and street luge?

Now we have a conservative talk-radio host who refers to his drive-time call-in show for goodness sake, as "Extreme Games." (Does ESPN know about this?) There are even extreme plastic surgeons now: seen "Extreme Makeovers" on television? What we've got with "extreme" is a clear case of a good word gone bad. And it's not alone. My picks for some other words and expressions I think we should give an extremely long rest to:

"Awesome." Need we say more? Time was, this word was reserved for those things in life we found so overwhelming that it was difficult to articulate our feelings -- the immense and horrible power of a hurricane comes to mind, or the vastness of the Grand Canyon, seen for the first time, aglow at first light. You know what's truly awesome? The view of planet Earth from space. You know what's not truly awesome? A cell phone ring that plays the first few bars of the "Mission Impossible" theme. Or a party, a pair of pants, or a product from Prada. Fun, fashionable, expensive? Sure. Awesome? Not so much.

"Journey." If you've watched the Academy Awards in recent years, chances are you've heard this word from some winner in almost every category. My personal favorite, some years back, was a bearded sound editor for an animated-short-cartoon-documentary-or-whatever, waving his Oscar and gushing, "I want to thank all those who made my journey possible." You know who made a journey? Marco Polo. The first moon landing in 1969? A genuine journey. In 1789, Capt. William Bligh (of "Mutiny on the Bounty" fame) was set adrift with 19 men in a small open boat and sailed it 3,600 miles to safety. A journey? I would say so.

Not a journey? One's progress, however colorful, through grad school. Or editing sound, however terrifically, for an animated short. (I wonder if that editor knew that on March 5, 1935, at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, the film "Mutiny on the Bounty" won the Oscar for Best Picture. And on that evening, there is no record of anyone who had anything to do with that film uttering the word, "journey.")

"Bottom line." It still means something in business. It still means something at 15 W. Fourth Street in New York, where a storied music club by that name has hung in for 30 years. It has considerably less meaning when it's used in the following sentence: "My bottom line for going to see 'Finding Nemo' is that we get Chinese afterward."

"At the end of the day." Very popular phrase for some reason in politics. (Recent actual example: "At the end of the day, we are going to have to do something about the deficit." You can be fairly sure, however, that nothing will be done by the end of this particular day.) Not sure why it appeals like it does, but at the end of the day, on any given day, if you tune in to "Crossfire," "Hardball," "Hannity & Colmes," "Larry King," "Scarborough Country," or "NewsNight with Aaron Brown," I guarantee you will hear someone, at some point, say, "At the end of the day." Try it. You may need TiVo, however.

"Taking it to the next level." This thoroughly overused phrase is now applied to everything from golf ("Ready to take your game to the next level?") to grad school ("Prepared to take your career to the next level?"). We're a society with level envy. Besides, what's wrong with someone being perfectly happy with the level they're at? For that matter, how often do we encounter people operating at their present level, who don't seem to have mastered the last level, never mind having any business heading for the next one?

Personally, I think the next level is getting entirely too easy to get taken to. It should be harder. Make it really mean something. In fact, I'd like to see level-taking become an extreme sport. Maybe more people would suddenly be perfectly happy with their game just the way it is. But, all of this does raise a larger question: If you start out at the bottom line, and you take it to the next level -- at the end of the day, is that a journey?

Yes?

Awesome.