I was reading the Chicago Tribune this morning and there was an article about how O’hare is the second busiest airport (to Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson). 89.3 million people flew in, out or thru Atlanta in 2011. 923,991 flights.
That got me thinking about my phrase about flying out of Phoenix, and about growing up when flying was a pretty big deal, and someone saying, “some day, flying will be as common as catching a bus.” So I’m thinking about this, and I’m thinking, “when was the last time I caught a bus?” It may be back in about 1971, when sister Jude and I caught a bus for siblings weekend with sister Deb at MSU. Where we convinced ourselves we were on the wrong bus, because the bus driver told us we were on the bus to “How!” and we couldn’t understand he was saying “Howell”; and that wouldn’t really of helped anyway because we knew we were supposed to be going to East Lansing and… wait a minute. That would have made us 9 and 11 years old. Boy. Times have changed.
So any how – flying has absolutely NEVER been like catching a bus for me. So let’s think of other phrases that are outdated or losing meaning or just plain confusing, but we use them anyway. Here we go:
- Any how...
- Is that all she wrote?
- It’s not over till’ the fat lady sings.
- Man Alive!
- Jesus H. Christ! (I think I got that one from my mom? I said it a recently and one of my kids were like, “What’s the “H” stand for?” And I’m like, “Horatio!”
- You are the cat’s pajamas!
- No shit Sherlock (Never mind – I’m keeping that one. I still like it.)
- Holy Cow!
