Comments on Want to be a free thinker but still a nice person: Lie back and enjoy the rolling tides of language

I'm convinced! It makes perfect sense!But we in Br...

2008-04-29T13:17:00.000-07:00

I'm convinced! It makes perfect sense!
But we in Britain, we only ever couldn't care less. And that's the way it should be.

It's actually "I know nothing about that, and care...

2008-04-29T11:50:00.000-07:00

It's actually "I know nothing about that, and care less;" "could" was never a part of it. There's also "I could NOT care less."

My American daughter explains the origin of "could...

2008-04-29T08:11:00.000-07:00

My American daughter explains the origin of "could care less" as follows:

It comes from "I know nothing about that and could care less". In other words, it's possible that I care less than not at all. Only the second half of the phrase has survived.

I'm not sure I'm convinced though.

Nervous flyer, that's a horrible story. I hate tur...

2008-04-29T00:57:00.000-07:00

Nervous flyer, that's a horrible story. I hate turbulence on a plane and always fear death and throwing up (in which order, I'm not sure). I'm sorry you had to go through that but now you know to always keep your seatbelt fastened because clean-air turbulence can strike at any time. I'd hate to lose your comments on this blog due to a turbulence-related head injury, so please take more care next time when flying! :) :)

That bugs me too---"momentarily." Another Bad Pil...

2008-04-28T08:45:00.000-07:00

That bugs me too---"momentarily." Another Bad Pilotism is :"We'll be on the ground soon." I want to know the exact conditions in which we'll be "on the ground"---I mean, adding the adverb "safely" would be nice. We could be "on the ground" in a fiery broken heap of metal!

Touchy subject, as I thought I was about to meet my Maker on my last trip---as soon as we reached cruising altitude after leaving JFK, the plane began to lurch and pitch and sway violently from side to side, rattling and thudding...AAAAAGH! I of course had unfastened my belt, and was thrown headfirst into a wall (I was seated in bulkhead.) People were screaming and crying---it only lasted about 3 minutes but you know how that stuff is---seemed like 3 hours of sheer terror. I didn't have a rosary handy so I prayed using my beaded reading-glasses chain---something like, "HailmaryfullofgraceFUCKsaveme pleeeeeaaaaaazzze!"

This is one of our favorite uses of American Engli...

2008-04-28T08:21:00.000-07:00

This is one of our favorite uses of American English -- when the plane you are on is about to land and the pilot comes on and says the plane will be landing 'momentarily.' In UK English, that means you are doing something for a moment then resuming normal activity, so when the pilot says that, in UK English, he is saying the plane will land then go back up again right away.

Well, I love an excuse to lie back and enjoy rolli...

2008-04-28T06:46:00.000-07:00

Well, I love an excuse to lie back and enjoy rolling tides of ANYTHING (my favorite Italian phrase is "dolce fa' niente;") but I must confess that some phrases in English (American AND British) do rather rankle my exquisite linguistic sensibilities. "Second-guess" is certainly one, but there are dozens: I hate reading that a narrowly-averted plane disaster is a "near-miss"---I mean, shouldn't it be "near-crash"? But the very, very worst (I mean, those guilty of using this one should suffer an auto-da-fe) is "I could care less." Well, I always want to say after slapping the speaker, perhaps you DO care somewhat, if there's a lesser degree of caring possible?