Posted by Richard-Edward de Vere on August 29, 2012 - 9:08am
One of the things we all have to deal with at one time or another, as a part of living in Los Angeles, is being stuck in traffic. As you look around to the assorted semi-comatose cars around you, different people deal with traffic in different ways. There is the honker usually followed by curses, the eaters, those that read or put on another coat of make-up or head bangers listening to the radio (many of them a secret Katy Perry fan.) Me? Well, I take time to reflect about the massive amounts of thoughts that bombard my brain. I usually think about the mundane things and often come up with questions about the English language that are repeated everyday but never really examined for their meaning. Here are a few examples I have grappled with while stranded. “If ignorance is bliss, why aren’t politicians happy?” “Why should I stand to be corrected?” “I know a vice, but what’s a versa?” And “tit for tat”? What the heck is a “tat” because I know what a ……….uh…………..never mind about that one. I’ve smelled daisies, and they really aren’t that fresh. What would possess a person to put butter in their mouth to melt? Has no one ever mentioned that cream, comes from cows and not a crop? And lastly, when a person sneezes we say “Bless you” because it was thought the sudden expulsion of air took the soul with it. Well, based on that logic, why don’t we say “Bless you” when someone farts?
