Skip to main content

Idiomatic and Euphoric

I got to thinking of all the ways American English has evolved.  Current use depending on the user provides ample anecdotal evidence of cliches and verbiage being used with no thought given to said cliche's origins or propriety or relevance to time.  It is a hoot.

A recent planned power outage hilarity that ensued in Northern California (more on the topic itself in another blog) led to multiple communication experts chiming in with the play by play.

Here we go with the idiom(t)s including yours truly. 'Play by play' is clearly a sport term from the days when people listened to an antiquated device called a Radio.

It is aimed at providing the listener a perspective that they would miss not being at the scene of the play.  Local and even international TV channels, Radio (that works when American's drive in their car), Social Media apps (when Americans look at their cell phone when driving their car) and other broadcasts flooded the market.

For the people at home the funniest event was when the TV anchors kept blabbing about their variety of teams out in the dark (literally and figuratively) trying to shed light.  Most of the folks they were trying to engage were - did you guess - in the dark.  Ergo they could not tune into the TV. 

Idioms that got most hits - everyone was scrambling to keep an 'Eye on Things'.  Some tried to have their 'Eye on the Situation'.  Others had their 'eye out'.  And then what?   I must say that things and situations must not have had so many eyes weighing them down or rolling on them at any given time.  Are you rolling yours now?

With these eyes of the reporters' sockets I wonder how they were wandering around in the dark?  Most importantly how did they find them back?  After they decided to not keep the eye where they left them.  Another favorite is 'needle in a haystack'.  What needle?  Unless you are a druggie who is so high that they literally cannot distinguish the city sidewalk and a haystack this idiom has no relevance today.  Nobody has any haystacks.

Nextdoor is another entertaining site where for zero cost you can watch neighbors post some really amusing comments -

Other than neighbors also keeping their eyes out and other junk that they cannot fit in their household -

  • Looking for a electrician - I commented - I saw one
  • Looking for a handyman to put some decorative lights - I commented - You can see them in Home Depot
  • Need newborn photographer - My comment - they usually have no experience
  • Keeping my eye on the back - I commented- it is dangerous to rely on one eye when driving
  • Need standby generator - oxymoron?
And while we are on (of off) the topic what is it with these sport analogies?  Touch base.  Let us play defence.  He is out in left field.  Etcetera.

First - touching anyone these days is a federal offense and get you locked up (out in the pasture).
Second - playing with words like defence can get you locked up.
Third  - Why not leave him in the field (or pasture) as it were?  Why debate left and right?  Maybe he was touching someone or playing with the wrong words?





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

But What If We're Wrong?

I attempted to read this book by author Chuck Klosterman backward to forward but it started hurting my brain so I decided to stop and do it like any other publication in the English language.  Start from page 1 and move to the right. Witty, caustic and thought provoking this is a book you want to read if you believe that the status quo might, just might be wrong. At times bordering on being contrarian about most things around us it tries to zero in on the notion of what makes anything believable and certain in our minds.  The fact that there is a fact itself is ironic.  Something analogous to the idea that you can never predict the future because there is no future. Many books and movies have tried to play on this concept - best that I recollect (I think I am) was 'The Truman Show'.  This book by Klosterman attempts to provoke the reader to at least contemplate that what they think they know may be wrong. He uses examples like concept of gravity, and how it ...

Peru, South America - Week well spent

Growing up in India the only Peru I knew of was a tropical fruit (Guava for those whose lingua is English).   Not until high school did I discover that it was also a country in the South American continent. So it was this early April week that we decided to hit up Peru - the land of the once glorious Inca people that lived 500 years ago.  Today Peru is the third largest country on that continent with a diverse geography that stretches from the drier Pacific coast plains to the high mountains of the Andes and the Amazon river valley to its east. Our trip was primarily a pilgrimage of sorts to visit the last remaining, lost (now found and documented), large scale, mostly undamaged, city of the Inca nobility, called Machu Picchu (MP).  The Inca were great architects and builders.  MP is a UNESCO world heritage site affording it high visibility to the tourism trade and therefore crowded year round.  Our timing was not quite high season allowing us...

You are important to us

Followed by piano music.   Followed by 'we are experiencing heavier than usual call volume'.  Sounds macabre like bleeding during menstruation or after a ghastly attack with a weapon on a hemophiliac.  Sorry Mrs. Johnson but it appears little Gertrude here has been bleeding heavier than usual what with her night time activities competing with the woodchucks in your neighborhood. Some services even go as far as to pick a random day to say - 'if you were to call us during the Chinese lunar month when the moon is axiomatically hugging the polar star with Jupiter intravenous when call volume is light'.  Well I will be damned.  I thought  I had checked with my astrologer before I placed this well focused call but  I guess this is what you get for listening to a quack. Umph! I am not sure which marketing genius came up with this personal touch concept of informing the caller that you are really a jackass for actually calling the customer serv...