Norm Crosby strikes again: Silver and Magic Bullets

Last night I saw some scholarly gent on TV talking about targeting and fixing some giant problem using a Silver Bullet.  It was another bi-malapropism-istic  error that made me cringe (yeah, that's a word, I just coined it.) So let's nail this one down:

Silver Bullet - used by the Lone Ranger and werewolf killers. Sometimes for vampires, too.

Magic Bullet - something that could kill disease causing organisms without harming the person that they are infecting. Think Erlich, Lister, Pasteur, tuberculosis, syphillis, moldy bread and penicillin.

Review: 

Silver Bullets, cowboys, werewolfs.

Magic Bullets: fix something while implying a one-off use.

Please commit these to memory and use them properly!

By the way: when the hell did "one-off" creep into our language? When I was working my tech job someone threw the phrase out, everyone nodded their heads, and it took me a couple of weeks to find out what it meant.  I thought I knew everything but worked with some brainy types who liked to make you think they were better educated/informed/connected than you were. Anyway, it means "make only one." But I guess you already knew that 'cause you are better than me.

Jim