Catch phrases

Why do catch phrases go out of style? In 10 years no one will be using "like" as every other word. And 10 years ago nobody said that. In the 50's people said stuff like "gee wiz." When was the cut off? Did someone just wake up one day and say "I don't really like 'gee wiz' anymore, so let's not say it!" and everyone quit?

And then there are the words like "butt head" and "doofus" that you just grow out of. But again, it's not like one day in the summer between 3rd and 4th grades you decided you were too old to be calling people butt heads so from that point on you would use a different word... No 4th grader has that kind of control! Most high schoolers couldn't stop saying like if they got paid...

I have a theory though, don't you worry! I think that maybe instead of it being a sudden thing, people hear something else that they like better, and start saying that. I think a long time ago people used to say "swell" but then they heard someone say "cool" and they thought it was a good word, so they started using cool instead.

And then there are the people who say words just to be funny. Funny people call things nifty, but no one says "Wow, you're nifty!" That's also a good example of how words change from having all-around uses to just being applicable to objects. You can't call a person nifty, but that backpack over there can be.

I also have a problem with people saying "say cheese!" when it's time to take a picture. I don't like cheese. It doesn't make me smile. I smile because I'm beautiful, not because I was just suddenly reminded of cheese. Where did that phrase come from? I like it in history when Griff takes breaks from lecturing to tell us the history of a particular phrase. Or even just to tell a good story. He's a good story teller. but sometimes he tells us about where words or phrases come from and it's actually really interesting!

Another theory I have is that there is a guy in a cave somewhere. He has no idea what is going on, but he has a typewriter and a tube like at the bank that sucks up your checks and gives you cash and he types words he likes into the typewriter and ships them off to the people who read them and start saying them, getting them out into the open. These people are called the "cool people." People listen to them and since they want to be cool, they copy them. That's how these weird phrases really start!

And don't even get me started on languages. How did someone sit down and make up all these words and then explain to people, without using words, what the words meant? Someone invented words, and that baffles me. I'd like to meet him, and ask him to make up some more. And ask whoever invented spelling to explain some things to me. For instance, silent e's. Really, why do we need those. And the letter 'c'? Totally unimportant! Same with 'x'! And why words spelled different mean the same thing or words spelled the same mean different things!

I think it's time for me to go watch an old movie with old language so I can laugh at the way old people talk.

P.S.People say something is dead as a doornail, but what in the world is a doornail?!