Using "Where are the * of yesteryear," I get the mahirs, the vics, the bucks, the blimps, the mowbots...hee. Mowbot. Girls, breakfasts, technocrats, reeds diseases, Pathfinders, C's, banks, nicknames, Wileys, lhasas, clothes, Snowdens, and Steinbecks. So I guess that was a good phrase.
jorn of robotwisdom.com occasionally used to do something along very similar lines, mostly querying google groups (look for "ClicheWatch" or "MemeWatch"): <a href="http://www.robotwisdom.com/log2002m11.html">"born with a silver" -spoon</a>, <a href="http://www.robotwisdom.com/log2002m10.html">"love the smell" -napalm</a>, <a href="http://www.robotwisdom.com/log2003m01.html">"wake up and smell" -coffee</a>.
some that worked for me:
<a href="http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22don%27t+count+your+*+before+they%22+-chickens+-hatch+-hatched">don't count your * before they" -chickens -hatch</a>
<a href="http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22in+the+hand+is+worth+two%22+-bird">"in the hand is worth two" -bird</a>
<a href="http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22one+*+doesn%27t+make+a+summer%22+-swallow">"one * doesn't make a summer" -swallow</a>
A couple years ago I did "Read the * Manual" +RTFM. I was after the use-count, though, so as I accumulated a good list of words for the blank, I ran each one for its count. I have it on good authority that doing this quite a lot was a great way to get banned from google, at the time.
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=MPG.1626c63f1432b7c19896a9%40news.seanet.com&oe=UTF-8