Hey! Who said that?

“Not for nothing…”

My former boss/friend used to say this all the time and I hated it… I though it was the stupidest thing. Until one day, I caught myself saying it, and now I can’t remove it from my vocabulary.

@p&m…New York, or Jersey?

…how did you know? lol

I rue the day that “It is what it is” became permanently rooted into my vocabulary. I still don’t think I really know what it means but I’ve used it in the following ways:

“I can’t do anything about whatever you’re telling me.”
“Whatever will be, will be.”
“I can’t think of anything to say and want to end the conversation!”

I find myself trying to hold back from saying it and I can’t!

My best friend in my teen years was from the area…many phrases/words were different than my Maryland vocab.: “Spaghetti sauce” was called “gravy”, “ground beef/hamburger” was called “chop meat”, and “not for nothing” was an everyday staple!

@august: I’m from New Jersey. I don’t call it gravy because I’m not all that Italian. However, New Jersey is notoriously chock-full of pure-bred Italians; everyone has a friend who’s 100% Italian. I guess that’s why “red gravy” is associated with Jersey! So I’m very familiar with the spaghetti sauce/gravy thing. I am also familiar with the “chop meat” thing and I hate it… it sounds so… ignorant. And I guess you got me on “not for nothing.” LOL

@p&m…it’s all good! :)

@baseballnut- I can’t tell you how many times I’ve cringed every time I heard “it is what it is.” Another that drives me up the wall (there’s a saying for you) is when I hear “Walk the walk, don’t just talk the talk.” I want to stick an icepick in my eye whenever somebody says that!
@augustlan- Italians always call spaghetti sauce gravy. My mother-in-law calls it this as does any Italian-American I know.

“Push the envelope.”

Shoot me in the face, please.

Edit:
Also “split the difference”. I use that though, and hate myself for it.

@Astro: I find that it’s only “gravy” when one parent is 100% Italian (or enough that they don’t even know the other heritage lines)

My mother-in-law is half Italian and half Greek. I have a friend who is Italian/Irish and also calls it gravy.
Oh yeah. I see what you are saying. My wife is only 1/4 Italian and calls it sauce. Good observation.

I went through a phase in the 80s when I said “That’s what she said last night” all the time until I drove myself nuts.

Oh, while we’re at it… “bite me” is a big one I use a lot at work. LOL

“Don’t bid the devil good morrow”. Picked it up from my dad. From my mom: “dagnabbit, datburnit, ooooh gussy, and an occasional “y’all”.

@Seesul- What, diid you grow up in the south?
And I always thought it was dag-burnit!

LMAO! Gold! I love the south!

In our family, they always dagged the nabbit and datted the burnit for some reason. My mom was a the Southern Belle. I’m a 5th generation Californian. I picked up a lot of it and didn’t realize it until I met someone from Ohio and they pointed it out to me.

“At the end of the day;” “At this point in time;” “Knock on wood (one’s head);” “Sticks and stones…”

And think of the regional synonyms for 1) Milk shake and 2) Hoagie.

“Outside the box.” If everyone is thinking outside the box now, isn’t it just a bigger box?

I forgot about “it’s all good”. Makes me want to slap whoever says it!

Marina – everybody in my office started saying, “That’s what she said” after it became the standard line from the tv show “The Office”. You were ahead of your time.

Assuming makes an ass out of u and me…huh…huh…huh

Seesul jogged my memory of Southern aphorisms inculcated into my being from my parents. My husband was quite surprised the first time he heard me refer to something as a PureNTee hole (Spelling unknown—I only heard it.) I will also come out with my Grandpa’s “Well, we got back the same day we left.) (must be drawled).

Six of one, half dozen of another. I say this all the time, and recently heard a young woman say “six of one, a dozen of another”, which really changes the whole equation, don’t you think?

@augustlan Me too! That reminds me of “What’s that got to do with the price of tea in China?”

@Marina…one of my mom’s favorite sayings!

@Marina and augustlan; one of my mom’s also. I used to get very annoyed, I remember.

@gail…my mom was full of sayings. Every time, and I do mean every time, anyone turned on a light, she’d say “let there be light”, and just about every other day she’d say “I see, said the blind man, as he picked up his hammer and saw.” Drove me crazy!

@charlie…hope the test results bring you good news, and if not, that the bad news is not too bad!

Oh, no! Now I am onto the parental saying. “Watch your tone of voice, young lady.” “What are you trying to do, poke someone’s eye out?” “In or out?” “Do you think I’m made of money?” (The made has to almost growled.)

I almost fell on my sword one day (there is one of mine) when I caught myself saying to my dog (who had just scarfed something off the kitchen counter), “Mackie, I am very disappointed in you, young man.”

@charliecompany34 Great question!

My favorite Grammaisms: Tetched (She/He is a bit tetched) and Pixelated. She said this about cats, when they chased imaginery beings around the house at mach speed, changing directions without a reason.

Why “Heaven to Betsy”? Where’d that one come from?
Even better- “Heavens to Mergatroid.”
I realize that last one is really dated.
And speaking of Grandmaisms, mine used to say “snug as a bug in a rug.”. I kinda like that one.

“Eat. . .children in Europe are starving.” “God helps those who help themselves.” “Say honest.”

Yeah. My grandmother would say the samething except it was people in China that were starving.

Some theories on Heavens to Betsey, AC

And on the starving kids in China: I was over at my neighbor’s house for dinner when I was a kid. The lady of the house (mommy) used that on one of her 6 kids. The kid had finally reached his limit on food and hearing that sage saying, that he couldn’t help himself. His reply: “Well, mail it to them.”

He spent the rest of the night in his room. We spent the rest of the meal in silence.

Oh my God. My mom told me she that when she was told to finish her food and that there were people starving in China her response was “Why don’t you just mail it to them.” She got in serious trouble with her mother. You know what this means? We all have the same mother! What a small world.

No, Chuckie, it’s just the SMA (Secret Mommy Academy). When my son was about 8, we went on an outing to a zoo here. We took along one of my best friends and her little daughter, who was 3 at the time. At one point, the daughter started acting up, and my friend took her aside and gave her a mommy lecture. My son overheard it and was aghast. He accused me of telling her to say that. They were the exact words I would have used.

by coincidence, SMA are the intials of the elementary school attended

Whenever my parents get too overprotective/paranoid, I automatically say “Don’t worry about it” or “I’ve got it covered/in control”. I really need to stop doing that. I rarely have it in control.

@Seesul- Damn. Too bad. I’ve always wanted a sister. It’s not easy being an only child.
All may feel pity for me if they’d like.

“Why”, I whined. “Because I said so, ” says the SMA.
Or:

A. “I’m the parent.”
B. “You’ll understand when 1) you have children; 2) when you’re older
C. All of the above.

Oh my goodness.. Grandmaisms:

when asked what’s for dinner “skip around the table”
When asked if she knew where blank was “up [in] Mike’s room”.. I think that was supposed to mean the garbage.

Chuckie, I have an only child and my dad was an OC, so I understand what it is like. We solved the problem with “rent-a-sibs”. I’d be honored to be yours.
Besides, anyone who’d marry someone who has such an exquisite collection, must be related to me somehow.

@Astro: I loved being an only child!!

Any time I’d ask my mother a “why” question she didn’t feel like answering, she’d just say, “Because of all the sandwiches there.” It wasn’t until I was an adult that I asked her what that meant. Apparently it’s the punchline to a joke: “Why can’t you starve in the desert?”

This sad some one who is trying to keep up even he/she run out but still can cross the bridge.