[ExI] You know what?

[Damien Broderick]

At 09:03 PM 1/22/2008 -0800, Lee wrote:

>are people
>really so mindless that they can be taken over by a meme without
>any awareness?

Well, blimey, Lee, that's how memes *work*.

>In the late eighties, those eager to use the latest verbal fashion
>found themselves saying "I could care less" to mean "I couldn't
>care less", as though seeking to emulate some kind of character
>who wasn't big on verbal distinctions.  Then in the early 90's,
>"say what!?" became the rage for a year or two.

I suspect the former usage is an appropriation from the black 
underclass, as certainly the latter is. Steve Pinker, to my 
annoyance, defends "could care less" against (ahem) self-righteous 
language poh-leece such as my good self. My working hypothesis is 
that the phrase is derived from swallowing the "n't"--rather as the 
"rua" is elided in the month "Feb-you-ree" (which is now authorized 
in some dictionaries). If I'm right, I'd expect it to be said with 
this stress: "Ah COULD care less" rather than "Ah could care LESS" or 
"Ah could CARE less." Is it?

Speaking of such things:

Pursuing my grasp of teen idiom on TV by watching Terminator for 
telly teens and tots (and quite enjoying it), I noted a 2007-era 
schoolgrrl pissed off by a grrl Terminatrix snarling in a marked and 
menacing manner: "Bitch whore much?"

Jeez, it's like being flung into Phil Dick's future.

Damien Broderick