Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake. The passive voice is to be avoided. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms. Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
How long a minute is depends on what side of the bathroom door you're on. I have noticed that the people who are late are often so much jollier than the people who have to wait for them. According to recent estimates, the number of actively spoken languages in the world today is around 6,000. More than 1,400 of those languages belong to the Niger-Congo family from Africa, and about 1,200 are in the Austronesian family from Madagascar, Indonesia, Australia, the Pacific Islands, and New Zealand. Most of today's active languages are spoken by very few people, and many of them are losing speakers rapidly as the world becomes more and more connected.