Things people say - maybe too often

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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1

I’d like to list here a few japes or turns of phrase I encounter often (mostly in text, not used in conversation so much) that may or may not be transitioning into cliches and becoming tiresome, to me at least. I’m sure everyone has their own collection of these.

I’m not against idiomatic shorthand phrases, which have always been part of language. These are things that circulate in the ether, get passed around, often it’s not clear where they came from but they turn up a lot until they start to seem a bit worn out; you probably don’t hear that something well-organized is in “apple pie order” as much as you might have say fifty years ago; today it seems to be long past its sell-by date. (“Past its sell-by date” - hmm, that might be another one due for retirement.)

Here’s some samples which I will review and decide whether or not they deserve to remain in circulation. Not that what I think will make any difference.

“I loves me some…”
No! Was cute when David Letterman used it in the 80s. Now - seems kinda crypto-racist.

“This is not your father’s (ginger beer, Republican party, methamphetamine, etc.)”
What, you really think you can whup your old man? A fallacy.

“I don’t have a dog in this fight.”
Oh, so we’re supporting dog fighting? Okay, I get the meaning here: “I’m observing this thing from the sidelines, with no personal stake in the outcome”, which is a useful observation, but the metaphor it’s based on could stand to be re-thought.

“'Nuff said.”
I blame Stan Lee, who used to say this in Marvel comics. Don’t ask me how I know this. Just stop saying it.

“The best (movie/ book/ record) you’ve never (seen/ read/ heard).”
Please! So presumptuous. What someone saying this really means is “I’ve discovered this amazing work of art that is unjustly obscure, and by telling you about it I am in effect taking possession of it and proclaiming my superiority, nya nya”. Needless to say, I have known about it for years, so now who’s the fool?

“That’s 90 minutes of my life I’ll never get back!” (said of a bad movie).
It was original and clever when someone - maybe Rex Reed - said it in 1970. Less so today.

“Pot, meet kettle.”
Shortened version of a cliche that is also pretty ugly when you think about it - “You’re black!” “You are!” - no.

“My two cents”.
Another truncated saying that doesn’t really add anything to the discussion; maybe a marker of modesty but if you have to say it, it doesn’t seem that sincere.

“Wait for it…”
Interjected between two parts of a statement, it means “here comes the funny part, you will die laughing when I say it”. Now when I hear it, I brace myself for didappointment. (They’ve used this in the UK for decades and now it’s starting to infect America. Too bad. I can only hope we don’t start saying “I’ll leave you to it”.)

“As one does.”
Used to spice up a silly or absurd statement - “I filled my shorts with ground eggshells, as one does”. I still think this is fairly funny. Ask me how I feel in five years.

“It jumped the shark.”
This one is so odd I could see it becoming standard English for “It was once good, then at a certain point it got bad”, a thing that no one really questions or wonders where it came from, like “it went pear-shaped”.

2

I am intrigued by your 1970 attribution for this, The first time that I heard it was as a 14 year old in 1967. A few guys from my football team, on an interstate trip, went out to the movies with guys from the team that we were playing the next day. We saw The Quiller Memorandum and, as we left the cinema, one of the guys from the other team spoke that line. It was so striking that one of my former team mates was reminiscing about it at a reunion last year. Now I would love to know the origin.

3

I don’t actually know, and my guess of Rex Reed in 1970 was just that. If you heard it 1967 I can’t dispute it. By now it has whiskers on it, as they say. It turns up a lot in IMDb movie reviews, and it ain’t original or clever.

4

“Rinse and repeat”
Yeah, I know it’s an idiom that crept into the American vernacular, probably from a shampoo bottle, but when the process you’re describing to me does actually include stages of washing, and this isn’t one of them, it would be much more helpful if you just said ‘repeat’.

5

Another one you can blame Dave Letterman for. He had a routine called “Supermarket Finds”, where he’d find something odd about some product, in this case it was a shampoo bottle that included the instruction “lather, rinse, repeat”. You can no doubt find it on YouTube.

6

Why is it ugly? Are you interpreting it as having some racial angle or something?

7

The list of overused modern idioms seems endless.

Also, the pot and kettle reference is to soot, which would arise from heating them over an open fire. Not skin color or anything remotely like that. Anyone who’s cooked over a campfire would know how messy soot is on cooking vessels. We used to rub soap on them beforehand to aid in getting it off.

8

Oh I don’t think it’s so innocent. Kettles and pots don’t talk, of course, and they are indeed sooty, but I wonder why one would use blackness as an accusation, a negative thing, against the other - were the originators of the old saw not mindful of the connotations as applied to fellow humans? They didn’t come up with “the snowman calling the swan white”. No indeed, and old folk literature is full of milk-white maidens threatened by coal-black knaves, not necessarily of African descent but it’s plain they are to be thought of as subhuman, beastly, and their dark appearance as a curse. So yes, racist. Did I answer the question?

9

Not everything is about racism. I suggest you try to clean soot off a pot and then talk.

10

You’re entitled to think that, and I’m entitled to tease out the subtext of such Euro-centric legacies as have been passed down.

11

The phrase was the nickname of Boston saloon owner and Red Sox fan club leader Mike McGreevey at least as early as 1903.

12

Yay. We used to do that at Girl Guide camp back last century. (DW was a leader)

13

The phrase was the nickname of Boston saloon owner and Red Sox fan club leader Mike McGreevey at least as early as 1903.

Well of course, but I doubt many using it these days think of him when they use it. Even those of us from Boston. But if I’m being unfair to Stan Lee, please chime in. You can even defend the expression if you like. Personally, it’s not something I do.

14

The origin of the phrase is quite well researched. It’s does not appear to be about race.

15

"Fairy Nuff always makes me think of Piers Anthony’s Xanth books.

There you find NightMares that leave hoofprints, Money really does grow on [silver] trees, and Xanthian children go nuts for eye scream, a popular frozen dessert made from the eyes of special birds. And Honeymoon is the go-to destination for newlyweds because it is the sweet, pretty side of the moon (as opposed to the ugly side, which is made of green cheese).

16

I’ve always had an issue with this one specifically.

My response is, “are there other periods of your past that you are able to get back?”

mmm

17

After about three years of overuse, I’m sick of “I ain’t gonna lie…”

I hope it will forever evoke the early 2020s — much as “groovy” evokes the late 1960s.

I mean, did anyone ask you to lie? Even suggest that you lie? Is it a post-Trump-presidency thing, where the default is now that you would lie, such that you must announce otherwise?

18

Virtually every day on the local news (yeah, I know) there is a story or three about a murder.

I know I’m morbid, but I always play a mental game of Spot the Cliche. I listen for variations of these three phrases:

  • We just want justice
  • He didn’t deserve this
  • We need closure

I sometimes get the trifecta.

mmm

19

Yeah, that’s usually code for “We need revenge”.

“Life is short”
“No, it’s not - it’s the longest experience you’ll ever have.” Someone around here said that and it stuck with me.

“Obvious/Obviously”
If something is obvious, there should be no need for the speaker to say that. By saying the word, the speaker is degrading the listener, assuming they’re stupid or not paying enough attention. If something is easily perceived, there should be no need to use this word.

20

I don’t have a dog in this fight.
I’ve heard, Not my monkey, not my circus. Zat better?