Skip to main content

Have you ever wondered ???

Have you ever wondered where certain phrases come from?

Like, "Cold hands warm heart"?
Often when shaking someone's hand, I hear how cold my hands are. And they are (so are my feet). I don't know why my hands are cold. But I usually responds with the 'cold hands warm heart' phrase. I want people to know that my cold hands should in no way reflect on my overall disposition. I might give you a cold stare if you say something wildly inappropriate, but that's a rarity. Those are the only things cold about me. I have a big heart and a warm personality.

Or "It's the least I can do"?
This is a favorite pet peeve of my friend Laurie. It's usually said after someone says thank you for a kind gesture. And the giver then says, 'it's the least I can do'. Really? You're basically responding with "I could have done a lot more but instead chose the option that required the least amount of effort/time/resources because that's how thoughtful I'm not."

Or this "No problem"?
You tell someone thank you, and they respond with 'no problem'. This makes John cringe, and he'll often remark - 'the correct response to thank you is you're welcome'. Might be a generational thing!

What are some of phrases that have you wondering? Add them here!

Comments

It's not a popularity contest, but ...

The summer that wasn't

It's July 30. Summer, right? Wrong!!! In Michigan, we had our summer two weeks ago for about 10 days. Saw a recent post on Facebook that read:"You know you're in Michigan when you wear your bathing suit on Monday and your parka on Tuesday." We sweltered for a week or two and then were chilled again. That's where we are now. Chilling at 70. Weather aside, it no longer feels much like summer. The back-to-school ads, commercials, displays and talk have begun full-force. And I feel like I just got used to having the three-not-so-little Piggins home again and now I have to get them ready for school. Delaney has a little longer, but Michael leaves for Wayne State law in two weeks and Matthew for his sophomore year at DePauw in three.  I get the nest re-feathered and damn these 'baby' birds but they stay for too short a time then fly away. *sigh* Since this is the "glass half full" blog of a pseudo-Pollyanna, I will revert to thinking positively ...

The "I'll Nevers" of growing older

  Years ago as a freelance writer, I submitted an essay entitled "The I'll Nevers of Parenting". It was a list, mostly, of things I had said prior to having children and the crow I was then eating because of the stupidity of the claims. You know little pearls of 'wisdom' that only someone who hasn't experienced the joys of  parenting could utter, like: I will never yell at my child in public or I will never let my child eat dinner in front of the television or my children will never stay up past 9 pm. I yelled at my children (usually when we were both tired and totally irrational!) in public. One time, as we were in the drop off lane at school with a long line of cars behind us, the boys hoped out of the car but Delaney was insisting on something that for the life of me I cannot recall and I was insisting that she get out of the van. We crept along, van door still open, until I got to the end of the line and yelled at the top of my voice, "Delaney get the...

Sick in St. Louis and Earthquakes in Michigan. What?

A 4.2 magnitude earthquake rattled our home a few weeks ago. Now if we lived in California (or even Oklahoma!) that would be almost commonplace but we live in Michigan where an earthquake is earth shattering, not because of the resulting damage (aside from a few funny Facebook pictures of toppled lawn furniture, I didn't witness any damage) but because earthquakes in Michigan almost never happen. Or at least ones that are felt by the average person. Or even me!  That earthquake was just the beginning of strange events, for this not-so-average person.  The day after Michigan shook, John and I went to St. Louis to see Delaney's end of freshman year performance.  One of the last times John had been to St. Louis together, was in August when he'd had his heart attack. We had dropped our daughter and a van full of belongings in sweltering heat and humidity. It was the first day of a planned two-day orientation and and the following day was the official good bye. John hadn...