Sorry, JB, but I actually like "whatever" used in that sense. It gives me comfort and a warm, pleasant gut feeling, whenever I see or hear it used. It is a bit akin to "duh", but not so cuttig to its target, and not so aggrandizing of the self who utters it.

It is true it is dismissive, but maybe you hate being dismissed (I DON"T KNOW if you hate being dismissed. I just theorize.) But as a word and gesture to signify a dismissing, it is a very economical and effective way of doing so, and with doing it with the least amount of insult and with creating the least amount of psych or social-pscyhe damage possible in its target.

I think the reason it's popular, also has to do with it rolling off your tongue so readily, easily, and effortlessly.

Or whatever.

I guess it would depend on the context of the situation. Most of the time it is some sort of dismissal and a lack of interest and respect. It is an attitude of "I don't give a shite."

"The proof is in the pudding."

The correct saying is, "The proof of the pudding is in the eating."

This is another case of someone getting it wrong and then all the lemmings following him/her over the cliff.

Wux -

I have actually used "themself" in writing .

Kick the can at me, or whatever. I hang my head in shame.

Ghostrider, you are an artist.

All of you folks are right on target.

What drives me crazy are the people who wrong others and then want to "let it just be water under the bridge." Makes me want to hold them under the water under the bridge!

IDK, if they are remorseful and make amends, it should be water under the bridge. Most of the time at least, some wrongs just can't be mended, regardless of remorse though.

Don't forget "like" and "ya know" and "coz/cuz".

Yea I agree with a certain degree of forgiveness especially if a person is making a real effort at amends but the ones that say the phrase like it is just ok to say "opps, my bad, and I get a free do over" nah that is not going under my bridge lol. P>S> some other similiar annoying phrases.

Those bastards.

d

Dem lemmin's you can fry like prawns. They just taste different.

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Someone here said "think outside of the box." This is a special expression for me, very visual. Very dirty.

I'll try to explain in a socially acceptable way.

"Pull your head out of the gutter."

"Think with your head."

"You have a one-track mind."

"Gearbox."

Now, gentle reader, please try to gel the three together. If you do it right, you understand my frustration that so far 100 percent of my attempts at making "think outside the box" thrown at men have met with failure.

I guess there are more than one lateral steps in the pun. People (and I am no exception) are good to handle one lateral step, but no more. This has two lateral steps. Or maybe three. I can't count that high.

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Edit: a hint: they say men think of sex about seven times each minute at age thirteen, and about fourteen times each hour at fifty. Women, on the other hand, think of it at exactly the same fequency (number of times per period).

this, to give you a bit of insight where my head is most of the time.

Because I believe in statistics, so I always do what statistical findings say I do.

I like it when butchers of the language come up with a new metaphorical meaning with their butchered version of old, tried and true, metaphors.

"The proof is in the pudding" may be a piece of paper, with the proof written on it, mixed in, uncut, into the "pudding" or something that looks like chocolate pudding but smells differently.

To a mind that thinks more in concepts than in concrete, this is a great new saying. "If you want the truth, you have to finger your way through a bucket of sh(t," is what it means to me. This means, in a better way of saying, putting effort into finding the truth through a very unpleasant experience, like when a social worker discovers why an orphan never saw his or her inheritence, which is that his uncles and aunts simply stole the stuff from him only because he is a minor and has had no way of defending his rights.

Or when a company accountant tells the CEO that the company went bankrupt, and the CEO hires forensic accountants, and it turns out all employees, from the cleaners and the truck drivers, to the accountants and the economic forecasters, have been stealing from company funds and assets. But he needs a forensic accountant to see and show him this, coz (<--TEADIPPER!!) the nitty-gritty of discovery means pulling little slips of paper from the "pudding".

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And thus a new saying is born, applicable to a hitherto unreferenced situation or setup by sayings, through a person or persons miswording an old, tried and true, saying.

I and a bunch of my friends were eating out, and one guy complained that the portions were small in the place. We went there, as a group, regularly.

I said that maybe they wanted the customers to order desert as well.

Somebody said "you just can't win in this restaurant."

Somebody asked how large are the Wiener Schnitzels.

I saw the waitress carry an order of that to another table, and I said, "you see... there. That's about the size of it."

They (my friends) wanted to murder me, as a first reaction to my statement, and also at any time, as a rule. They had also set up a club fund to convince me with money to commit suicide. The sooner, the more money. Then someone pointed out why it would not work for me, or for anyone else.

I think reacting to phrases that to us are over used may be nothing more than a sign of our own impatience.

"just sayin"

"chill out"

"get over it"

Impatient, who me?

Wha, have you been following me around?