Mestee Blogger

I was driving by a rest stop the other day and I saw a parked car with George Michael doing drugs in the driver's seat. Okay, not really. I was driving by the rest stop and recalled a time many years ago when my sister became upset after my Dad told her that we would be stopping at a rest area. Upon further questioning, it became clear that Sarah thought that a rest area was an "area" where people would be "arrested". Arrest area.

This reminded me of some words that had worked their way into my vocab as a youngster. You know the brick thing on top of your house that emits smoke when you have a fire? Jimney. I think my parents laughed at me a hundred times before I caught on. Also, you may be familiar with those little twisty salty snacks, sometime found in a jumbo variety at ballparks. Until age 6, I had no doubt that these were called preNtzels. I'm sure there are more -- probably even more embarassing than these -- but I can't think of any right now.

Irf will occasionally share the misunderstandings of his nephews with me. My favorite of these would be the dreaded nemesis of Luke Skywalker throughout the Star Wars trilogy: Dark Vader. This is a good illustration of that gap where you hear new phrases but don't really get a chance to see them in print. As Irf pointed out, "It sort of makes sense that he would be Dark Vader...as far as he's concerned, what's a Darth?"

I don't know exactly what my point is here, other than the fact that it is funny to laugh at small children who say things incorrectly. Everyone has these little phrases from their childhood, I'm sure. The key is that you ditch them before you reach an age where it's just unacceptable to not know what you're talking about. My aunt was in a meeting with a woman who used a phrase that made my aunt wonder if she had heard the woman correctly. The woman got the benefit of the doubt until she used the phrase again. "Any updates?" "Nope...same-o same-o."
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