Friday, 10/20

Loraine thinks I sound like her grandmother.

I don't swear an awful lot. I try to keep my language clean, and I try to keep my discourse elevated. That's just the kind of person I am. Plus, having worked in radio all these years, I've learned not to use language that might be problematic should there ever be an open microphone nearby. Yet there are times when something stupid happens or I'm so shocked by an event that I have a reaction that causes certain words to come out of my mouth. And what are those words, at least usually?

Words along the lines of “Jeez 'o Pete”, “Gosh Darn it”, or, if it's really bad, “Crap”.

Shocking language, isn't it? But sometimes you just have to say things you have to say, if only to express your true feelings about a matter. And sometimes the words “Jeez 'o Pete” are the only words that get across those feelings. Even if Loraine does think I sound like her grandmother when I say them.

I don't know why I started using a phrase like “Jeez 'o Pete”; it's certainly not something a normal person my age would use. Maybe Loraine's right. After all, she's right about a lot of things. Maybe I heard my own grandmother (or someone like her) use the phrase so much that it stuck itself into my brain. Or maybe I subconsciously picked it up from one of those old radio shows I listen to.

Or maybe, just maybe, I'm weird. Don't discount that theory.

I've been reading a book about euphemisms (called, imaginatively enough, “Euphemisms”) recently, and it talks all about how we tend to use substitute words when the subject about which we're talking makes us uncomfortable. The writer actually goes through hundreds of euphemisms and discusses how they came about. “Jeez 'o Pete”, however, was not one of them. I'd be curious, though, to know from where it came, and why it's so associated with women of a certain era.

And, apparently, me.

So if you happen to see me doing something stupid, like dropping a can of soup on my bare foot or walking into a cupboard door, both of which actually prompted use of that phrase, be aware that the words “Jeez 'O Pete” will be probably be coming out of my mouth. Sure, I could use a different word or phrase, but that wouldn't be as much fun, would it? And it would also be so much more predictable, too.

And that's something I'd never want to be. So “Jeez 'o Pete” it is. And on that note, have yourself a great weekend, Jeez 'O Pete!

(jim@wmqt.com)