# "I started that. Yeah that was me" **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 8, 2006, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517 "2006-03-08T07:25:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/21 "2006-03-08T15:06:04Z")
I don’t remember any specific example right now, and anyway they would translate badly. But one of the things I do to keep my audience’s attention (I often have to teach or do presentations at work) is to take an existing sentence and twist it. I’ve also invented a few totally-new ones. The first time Mom and me saw a TV newscaster use a Nava-ism, we laughed so hard we almost fell off our chairs, good thing they were big armchairs. She kept telling me “you’re famous! you’re famous, baby!” and I’d tell her “nah, I’m just a chunk of that famous author, Anonymous”. The specific newscaster is from a town about 50 miles from mine. It’s happened again, more than once. I’ve also been known to run a word-by-word translation from Spanish to English in order to make my English-speaking-coworkers understand the language problems of our English-as-nth-language audiences. Some of those have made it into company lore; one coworker collected several of them and turned them into a little framed poster which he kept in his cubicle. Since he’s “more serious than a dishful of beans” (you see what I mean: that got translated directly from Spanish and although the words are English, the sentence is not), people had problems understanding that he understood the joke… ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/22 "2006-03-08T15:10:01Z")
I was taking notes in a meeting when the client cut loose with an f-bomb diatribe that put everyone in shock. After a moment of silence I asked “Do you want to spell that with two g’s, or ck?” I can’t say it became _that_ popular, but a few people did use it when something unpredictable happened. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/23 "2006-03-08T15:22:55Z")
My husband believes he may have coined a phrase at his workplace. \* Nasty-gram\*: a bitchy email. As in, “I just got a nasty-gram from Chris.” Another seemingly unique phrase used at his workplace (but he is unaware of the origins) _A Come to Jesus meeting_: when you call an employee on the carpet and warn them to change their ways or else. As in, “I think it’s time we had a Come to Jesus meeting with Bob.” Another word he did not coin which has become popular, _crap-tacular:_ something which is incredibly crappy. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/24 "2006-03-08T15:26:57Z")
I wrote the “How many modern artists does it take to change a light bulb?” joke. A year after I told it on the Net, another Net friend told it to me who I swear was not among those I told. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/25 "2006-03-08T15:29:38Z")
> [@](#): > > Another seemingly unique phrase used at his workplace (but he is unaware of the origins) A Come to Jesus meeting: when you call an employee on the carpet and warn them to change their ways or else. As in, “I think it’s time we had a Come to Jesus meeting with Bob.” This is certainly not unique to his place of business. It’s been used in a lotta places for many years. Don’t know where it started, though, or when. ---
**Author:** ![Waenara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@Waenara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waenara)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/26 "2006-03-08T16:58:03Z")
My father claims he invented the phrase “Have a good one.” (As in, “Have a good day.”) I think he’s full of it, and he either heard it somewhere else and then forgot that he heard it somewhere else. Or, just as likely, it’s a basic kind of phrase that could have been independently “invented” many times by different people. He says he invented the phrase in the mid-70s (say 1975-77 or thereabouts), and he was/is from Alberta, Canada. So do any of you remember hearing “Have a good one” before about 1974? ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/27 "2006-03-08T17:06:06Z")
Thanks much, **LHoD** , **Tengu** and **Contrapuntal**. It always seemed to me to be a bit too widespread in usage to not have deeper origins. Ah well. I still take credit for inventing it for my circle of friends. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/28 "2006-03-08T17:18:31Z")
I’m positive I started “whatever” in the mid 80’s. I’m not even kidding about that. I had never heard anyone say it before me. I used it as the most dismissive, snide word I could think of. After a while my friends started saying it too and then a few years later it was everywhere. I know it’s an idiotic thing to try to take credit for but there it is. I’m probably wrong anyway. ---
**Author:** ![malkavia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malkavia/32/5621_2.png) [@malkavia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/malkavia)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/29 "2006-03-08T17:23:56Z")
I’ve been trying to make the term “pharoah” happen for more than a year now. I think it could very feasibly replace “cool” or “rad”. “Oh wow, this suite is completely pharaoh! Look at the view!” Yeah, it hasn’t happened. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/30 "2006-03-08T17:30:44Z")
“Beavers in the barleycorn!” - All me ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/31 "2006-03-08T17:51:50Z")
In 1988, my small town wife first usd the term “ish” as a standalone to mean “approximately, but not really, I’m just not sure”. ex: “The movie starts at 5?” “Ish…” I started using it when I returned to California, and all my friends picked it up. Several years ago, it showed up in Buffy. Now it is common usage. I’m not saying she made it up, but I feel it’s too much of a co-incidence to completely discount. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/32 "2006-03-08T18:06:57Z")
I once dubbed myself “Captain Obvious” because, well, I found myself often stating the obvious. (For example, that explanation? Completely obvious.) Soon everybody around me was saying it, including a lot of people I never spoke to. Alas, Adam Sandler gets the credit for popularizing the phrase, and I guess it’s possible I saw it in Billy Madison. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/33 "2006-03-08T18:11:33Z")
I started my car this morning. ---
**Author:** ![anyrose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/54ee81/32.png) [@anyrose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anyrose)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/34 "2006-03-08T18:13:42Z")
> [@Tristan](#): > > In 1988, my small town wife first usd the term “ish” as a standalone to mean “approximately, but not really, I’m just not sure”. > > ex: “The movie starts at 5?” “Ish…” > > I started using it when I returned to California, and all my friends picked it up. > > Several years ago, it showed up in Buffy. > > Now it is common usage. I’m not saying she made it up, but I feel it’s too much of a co-incidence to completely discount. oh no no no - “-ish” is New York City (specifically Brooklyn/Jewish) for “about then” and has been in use for many decades Does this count? In RHPS Janet: Besides, the owner of that castle might be a beautiful woman, and you might never come back. Audience: You should \*\*be \*\* so lucky! that’s mine circa 1978 ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/35 "2006-03-08T19:12:26Z")
> [@Hal Briston](#): > > Ahhh, perfect. I’d long been meaning to start a thread to see if my claim could be disproved. This will do nicely. > > This would be roughly 1985, give or take a year. A group of us from school spent our free time hanging around on Point Pleasant Beach boardwalk, generally acting like a buncha no-good long-haired troublemakers. > > There was a homeless man who we saw there every day – Abe Jones, the moaner of Pt. Pleasant boardwalk – he would spend all day walking the boardwalk, moaning quietly to himself. After awhile, he became our group’s personal charity case. When we were buying pizza or anything, an extra slice was generally picked up for 'ol Abe. > > Now, I’m sure many groups of teens have large made-up vocabularies. I don’t think the fact that we could carry on long conversations with most of the words meaning nothing to an outside observer is anything new. Well, one day, my friend Jerry and I turned the old guy into a slang term. We decided that in honor of Abe, if you were really hurting for something, then you would be deemed as “jonesing” for it. > > I remember being a little put off when people in our school who _weren’t_ in our click started using the term (“Hey! That’s _our_ word! Back off!”). That became amazement the following year when we started hearing kids from surrounding schools using it. It was a few years after that that it went to full-blown shock when I started hearing it in general use on television and such. > > Did we invent a now-common slang word? Well, I know that at least locally it originated with us. Whether or not it came out somewhere as well, I can’t say. Can you? Anyone know of someone jonesing for anything before 1985? Hate to burst your bubble, but the term “jones” denoting a serious drug habit and/or extreme need or desire was already a commonly used slang term at least as early as the early 70s. Cheech and Chong did a humorous song called “Basketball Jones” around 1974 or 75, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/36 "2006-03-08T22:08:23Z")
“Fucktard” I swear to god. I’ve since heard it in various places. “Fuckfoe” is catching on. It came from me trying to say fuck off and fuck you at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![anyrose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/54ee81/32.png) [@anyrose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anyrose)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/37 "2006-03-08T22:12:38Z")
when I was in grade school in the 60’s, and I wanted to express celebration in a sarcastic manner, I would point my index finger up and circle it around and say “I’m waving a flag”. Later, I noticed people used this motion in conjunction with “WhoopDeDoo” - so I don’t know if they were simultaneous, or if I actually started something. In the early 80’s, while at my first Mensa conference, it was very late at night, or rather very early in the morning, and I said as I left the group to go back to my room to sleep “I’m turning into a pumpkin”. Now, I hear people say that (at the very late/very early hour) all the time. I \*\*\*know \* \*\* I started that one. ---
**Author:** ![Waverly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/57b2e6/32.png) [@Waverly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waverly)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/38 "2006-03-08T22:19:20Z")
I’m willing to bet that ‘baditude’ and ‘uncle-fucker’ are mine. I was proud of baditude in the ‘80s, but now I’m filled with meh. Uncle-fucker started as a result of me misquoting some of the lyrics in Alice’s Restaurant. Also, and no one is going to be believe this: “the suck” as in “you are the suck” or now commonly “you are teh suck”. I had a Haitian friend in college that couldn’t say “you suck” for some strange reason. His odd syntax stuck in my head and I’ve used it ever since. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/39 "2006-03-08T22:42:41Z")
> [@anyrose](#): > > \ Now, I hear people say that (at the very late/very early hour) all the time. I \*\*\*know \* \*\* I started that one. You have to be joking. My mom said that in the late 60’s and there is no way she came up with it. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/40 "2006-03-08T22:43:56Z")
> [@Lissa](#): > > Nasty-gram > > A Come to Jesus meeting Both of these are very common. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517.md?page=3)