Heretofore Unforeseen

Everyone has a word or phrase they overuse.  If you did a Wordle on my blog, you'd likely come up with "of course", "literally", and "look-alike porn."  Those are my go-to phrases.  As is "by the way."

By the way - Wordle is some sort of alchemy that counts words and creates a pictorial graph of word usage that graphically represents the frequency of use of specific words and phrases.  You can wear it like a pedometer (but it goes on your neck) and download the data through an app.  Or it counts words on websites.  I literally can't remember which.

At an earlier job, my staff pointed out to me that I used the word "fastastic" with a frequency that over-represents the actual ratio in the real world of things that are fantastic to things that are crappy, fair, or OK.  Nothing breaks you of a go-to word like someone pointing out your go-to word.  So thank you staff of YouthLaunch, things are much less fantastic in my world these days.

The previous sentence illustrates what I see as a troubling trend.  Too many people have adopted the "start-every-sentence-with-so" strategy.  It's as if every question requires them to dig deep to bring you an answer that you, being of lesser intellect, can comprehend.

"How do I get to the hotel?"

"So you drive down interstate 4, exit at Podunk, and do a u-turn."

"How does electromagnetism work?"

"So the electromagnet is a magnet created when electric current passes through a conducting medium. Whenever any charged particle moves, it creates a magnetic field around its path of travel."

"What time is it?"

"So the large hand is on five and the little hand is on seven, so it's five after seven."

"How do I reattach this button to my shirt?"

"So you sew."

Sorry about the pun.  It was for my lovely wife Jill, who adores puns.

So now you know one more of my pet peeves.  So for those of you counting at home, the overuse of "so" to start any sentence is #592.

Abby has her own go-to phrase.  She noticed it herself, and has been trying to ween herself of the word.  She says "whatnot" a lot.  For every place that could use an "etcetera" or "stuff" or "whatever", she inserts "whatnot."  So we don't know where she picked it up, but I smile every time she uses it and I hope she fails in her efforts to purge it from her vocabulary.  I encourage you to sprinkle a few "whatnots" into everyday usage.  It will make you happy.  Fantastic!