It Takes A Lot Of Sh*T To Make A Garden Grow: Rant #1: Talking Sh*t
As a die-hard wordsmith I’ve always been sensitive to language—certain key words we say to express stuff. Lately I’ve become more and more aware of the over-use of some of the same ways of defining things; many (“most!”) of which I am also guilty of saying A LOT: Seriously. OMG. Are you kidding me?
I’m throwing out a bunch of my hugely overdone-beaten-to-a-pulp favorites right now. This is not a tremendous annoyance or mountainous challenge compared to the extraordinary stories featured in my book, It Takes A Lot Of Sh*t To Make A Garden Grow. I’m just talking about certain words and phrases that are being over-said. I liken them to a compost pile that, once recycled, can ultimately transform communication into something richer, more exciting, more colorfully intelligent. Think of how eloquently our forefathers expressed themselves. But today we speak in a kind of short hand, texting, half-sentence, sound-bite zaps in non-communicative ways of (not) talking to each other. The trickle down of these words and expressions have become trendy—kind of a lazy fallback to boring-speak. It’s time to shovel out some of these tedious utterances and plant new gardens of expression to make a point. Bottom line, I don’t have a solution, but maybe you do. Here goes:
“Iconic…”
“Note to self…”
“At the end of the day…”
“Back in the day…”
“So yesterday…”
“Helloooooo….”
“Just sayin’…
“Wrong on so many levels…”
“Yeh, NO…”
“No problem…” (uh, what happened to “you’re welcome?”)
“That being said…”
“So to speak…”
“Be that as it may…”
“Having said that…”
“That said…”
“What you don’t understand…”
“Not gonna lie…”
“Whatever…”
“Meh…”
“What you have to remember…”
“Bottom line…”
“Are you kidding me…???”
“After all is said and done…”
“It remains to be seen…”
“Amaaaaaazing…”
“Give it up for…”(instead of “let’s applaud”)
“Put your hands together for…” (ditto previous rant)
“Per se…”
“I want to say…”
“Breaking news…”
(used to be said only when there was really breaking news)
“Really?”
“Gotcha…”
“Wait…what?”
“Seriously…”
“Wait for it…”
“I know. Right?”
“Trying to wrap my head around it…”
What are your favorites? I’d LOVE to hear them!!!!!
Really. I kid you not. No lie….!!!!