I agree. If I heard someone say "clearance on request" to ATC, I would have about the same reaction to them as the neighbor guy in the office space movie when asked about a case of the mondays.

But really, there is a standard, correct way to do some things, and the way I see it, I do my best to do those things in a standardized way. It is hard enough to do all of the things that don't have a standard procedure or phraseology, so why not take the standardization as a gift- a chance to know how to do things right. After all, it seems like doing the right thing is easy compared to knowing what the right thing is.

Even though the AIM does have some things that are omitted on nearly every radio call ("over" comes to mind), requesting a clearance doesn't seem to be one of those gray areas. Keep the frequency chatter to a minimum, and let the controller and anyone else on the frequency know that you are a professional who knows what you are supposed to say.

Charlotte Clearance, N12345, IFR to Los Angeles

I say lets aspire to be standard and to sound like a pro, instead of propagating little bad habits for all of we newbies to pick up.