“Good golly, Miss Molly!”
Hee hee. Just reminded me (probably because there’s also a frick building in NYC) of my and who use to work at the Puck. Answering phones. In other words saying “Good morning, this is the Puck Building” over and over again. On some days when it wasn’t a particularly good morning for her, she had to be VERY careful when she picked up the phone.
Which brings me to my next point, isn’t “for fucks sake” or “fuck you” etc. even worse to be used as and expression of hostility or fustration? After all, I believe in fucking and consider it a good thing, whereas god I’m a bit dubious about on both points.
Of course I use both expressions (in fact got in trouble…and got my mother in trouble apparently, for my fequent use of “oh god” in kindergarten.) But that’s because I think there’s a word “fuck” that means the particularly interesting act and there’s a word “fuck” that’s and expilative. And there’s a word “god” (or “God” if you prefer) that refers to a divine deity and a word “god” that’s an expilative.
That says, I’d like to see “Zounds!” come back ni to fashin (not that that doesn’t have religious conotations of it’s own). And of course there’s alway “Oh shit”. You can’t not believe in shit.
I always liked the substitute phrase, “I don’t give a flying fig.” Nice imagery, funny. It always cracked me up when my friend used it. At that time, however, I had actually never heard the usual expression.
I will be saying “Bless You” to the burpers and the farters in my world from this day forth.
And anyone who thinks farts are not the death-messengers that sneezes can be haven’t been around my friends
“Whaaaa…?” :rolleyes:
“Oh…” :dubious:
“Fer…!” :mad:
People just fill in the rest with whatever they are inclined to. But really, if you’re not religious, I don’t see how that of anything should stop you from saying “Oh god.” Any of those phrases at this point in time have as much to do with religion as colored eggs on Easter and red-adorned fat guys on Christmas do.
I like one I picked up from Rome:
Juno’s cunt!
Probably not suitable for pretty much any company though.
An aside: the first time I heard this was on Moonlighting, when Maddie said she didn’t give a flying fig about something. David said he didn’t know what that meant, and Maddie nodded at the camera and said, “That’s OK, they do.” I wonder if that’s the origin or merely use of a pre-existing term.
Actually, I think I might take up By Jove, By Grabthar’s Hammer, and Zounds. Nice suggestions.
i wonder as well, i use it quite a bit. we must get more converts.
I have a ton of these, I’ll admit. Some of my most often used that aren’t actually incredibly offensive:
Jinkees
Gork
Gosh
Golly
Yoinks
Oh dear
Holy smokestacks
I don’t give a rat’s ass
I don’t know where all of them come from. My mother says “Oh for the love of Mike” or “Pete” all the time. And my father’s favorite expression was “Horseshit!”
Somehow, the two of these turned into “Jinkies!”
I prefer to use “dog.” It drives some people mad and makes others laugh.
There was a superstitious reason, and it was a long ass time ago. Now that we know sneezes can spread germs, and aren’t a sign of demonic possesion or whatever the fuck, wouldn’t the polite thing actually be for the sneezer to say, “Excuse me for potentially spreading my pathogens around, I’m terribly sorry”?
Or my husband. Or my boys. Or my sister-in-law.
:eek:
Wow. 50 replies and no-ones said the most blatanly obvious substitute word?
I guess I’ll have to do it.
SMEG.
Smegging Hell!
For Smeg’s Sake!
Smeggity Smegging Smeg!
Smeg Off!
Smeeeee… heeeeee…
As I recall, it had nothing to do with a belief in demonic possesion, but rather a concern that you might have the Plague/Black Death. They said God Bless you in the hopes that you didn’t have it/wouldn’t catch it, 'cause if YOU’VE got it then you just exposed THEM to it. I believe the “Ring around the Rosies” song comes from the same time period. In any case, my point was that there was a reason it started. It just became a tradition that stuck.
And yes the sneezer should excuse him/herself. I personally cover my mouth, sneeze, then say,“Pardon me.”
Then I politely wipe my hand on the back of whoever happens to be standing next to me…
Takes too long to say.
But the initials, ah. I see a potential new swearword here.
EMFPSMPAITS!!
It even sounds like a swearword the way I’m pronouncing it.
And sort of like a sneeze.
I hadn’t heard that explanation before, so I consulted the Oracle of Google. Our friend Snopes has this to say:
So people were saying something akin to “bless you” well over a millenium before the Black Plague. All explanations of the origin of this practice were invented centuries after it started. The explanation of Ring Around The Rosie is also false:
Years ago, my ex and I had a neighbour called Rod. Rod had a fantastic garden, and would frequently send home vegetables for the little dude, ever since the first time he saw the boy munch down on a fresh broccoli.
One such time my ex came in with an armload of vegetables and said “I’m on a mission from Rod.” Since then, I’ve used “Thank Rod” and “For Rod’s sake” on occasion.
I know. I was waiting for it as soon as I saw my post. sigh.
CaptainHaddock!
“woah woah” Snowy!
Tintin
Oh Belgum!
Great Zarquad!
Holy Zarquon’s singing fish!