I don’t know about you – maybe it’s my advanced age.  But, I do say some of the strangest things.  Undoubtedly phrases handed down through the years that have just gotten stuck in my brain somewhere, and come popping out at the most inopportune times.

Have you ever wondered about how these expressions got started?  How about “Oh, for the love of Mike!”.  I actually said that the other day, so I looked it up on the Internet and learned that the phrase is actually 600-800 years old.  It’s a mild curse often used by soldiers as a substitute for “Oh, for the love of God!”, which some thought was blasphemous.  Mike is short for St. Michael, the patron saint of soldiers and warriors.

I also discovered that people worked hard to find a way to use Jesus Christ in a mild oath without actually taking His name in vain.  Supposedly, Jeepers Creepers is one alternative.  And, the name Jiminy Crickett was also cited as an alternative.  Do you think Walt Disney was making a play on words when he named the famous wooden boy??

Here’s another one:  “The best thing since sliced bread”.  I wonder what they said before someone invented sliced bread?

Here’s a silly Canadian saying:  “So happy she had a grin as wide as the St. Lawrence”.  Hmmm.   And, a Canadian way of describing someone who is overly talkative: “That dude’s got more tongue than a Mountie’s boot.”  That gives me a really awful visual image.

And, good old Shakespeare gave us this one: “It’s Greek to me”.  I wonder why the Greeks?  Why not Japanese or some other language?

So, I guess it’s obvious that, for some reason, we humans tend to latch on to a phrase and stick with it for years.  Hundreds of them, in fact.

I wonder what phrases we will contribute to the world’s sayings.  Do you think 800 years from now surprised people will describe themselves as gobsmacked?  When people are in a confusing situation, will they say that something is hinky?  When they’re sure that something is wrong, will they call it jacked up?

Somehow our current slang just doesn’t have the ring of the older phrases.  But, I suppose I shouldn’t make fun of our language evolution.

My bad.