Bill Miller of Legg Mason won praise last week for telling it like it is when he announced to investors of the Legg Mason Value Trust Fund that the offering “had a dreadful second calendar quarter,” as the fund fell almost 9%. MarketWatch columnist Chuck Jaffe took the opportunity to provide some interpretation for some of the cushioned terms that other funds tend to use. For example, Jaffe warns investors to watch out for the phrase, “it’s a challenging market right now,” meaning that the manager is shifting blame to the stock market. Another oft-used phrase, “We underestimated the risk,” he says just exposes the failure of the manager, who is supposed to be managing risk. Jaffe calls the most overused phrase of all, “cautiously optimistic,” totally meaningless. The columnist interprets, “we’re taking steps to improve returns,” to mean that the manager has lost faith in the fund’s investment philosophy.