Words Are Slippery Things
Next time you have an embarrassing verbal moment, think of these and remember that words are slippery things, and we all have some fumbles. A boss of mine during my college years made this lament whenever she tried to communicate with the younger generation, “Communication is an art; and I don’t have a paintbrush!” Language is ever-changing, and keeping up can be a challenge.
A friend who was into drama told of a girl’s audition for a singing part. She chose to sing “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off,” by Irving Berlin. To get the full effect, bear with me while I spell phonetically. As this would-be artist sang the song, instead of pronouncing the words ‘potato’ and ‘po-tah-to,’ ‘tomato,’ ‘tom-ah-to,’ she sang them so they all sounded the same. “You say potato, I say potato. You say tomato, I say tomato” just misses something, don’t you think? You can tell she had never listened to this song. I wonder how likely it was that she got the part. . . .
This next incident is a personal favorite. I overheard this conversation while working in a college cafeteria during my university days. Let me set the scene: the participants of this verbal exchange were two college-aged girls and a young man. The boy and one of the girls obviously liked each other and wanted to impress one another. In the course of their conversation, the liked girl remarked, “I’ve always said, ‘The eyes are the window to the soul.’”
“Wow, that’s deep,” the awed boy responded.
The third girl ventured, “Umm, I think the president, or someone important said that. . . .”
The liked girl snapped, “Well, he got it from me, then, because I have always said it!”
I nearly bit through my lower lip, I was working so hard to fight back a laugh.
End of conversation.
Post Script: My friends and I looked up the source of this quote. It has been traced back at least as far as Joan of Arc.
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