Thing about which I wonder

Things I wonder about

The late George Carlin called them "brain droppings" -you know, those little things you think about and ask yourself, "Where did this idiom come from or what the hell does this even mean?"

Some examples, with no particular continuity or grouping:

"I know, right?"   If I know(and I just stated that I do) , why the hell would I immediately ask you if what I just said is correct? This phrase , as is "like" is a throwaway phrase that is essentially meaningless.  

"I could care less" You could? So why then, don't you care even less, to the point of not using this doubly negative phrase which actually means "I care."  Now if you "couldn't care less" you have actually conveyed the meaning you so badly mangled in the first place.

"I was headed towards town anyways" -No you weren't . Toward is actually a preposition having no plural, which is what the "s" you gratuitously added to both "toward" and "anyway", tries to make them into. Stop it.

"I would've like to have seen.......whatever!"  I don't know exactly what tense the extra' 've' transforms this statement into but it ain't kosher. I would like to have seen what you meant. I hope it wasn't "Should've," the bastard illiterate cousin of would've.

"Till the cows come home" - I sort of know what the speaker means, but is certainly is archaic unless of course you are a farmer and your cows have run off, in which case, they may or may not come home anyway.

"The dog followed John and I to the door, trying manfully to hump our legs." Although the animal in question may have some embarrassing  behaviors, so does that use of  "I" vs "Me." This may be the most common misuse in the language, probably because we think "I"  always sounds more proper  than "Me."  Certainly that is sometimes true. One common misuse  is "So and so and me are going...." No. He is going and I am going. We are going. But the errant canine in the opening sentence is following John and he is following "me". If there is a question, break the sentence into two phrases and try "I" or "me". Truly simple and apparently beyond the grasp of many, this test works every time! The close relative of this pronoun botching is "Him" and "Her" vs "He" and "She."  She and I might go somewhere, but her and I never can.

"Fierce"  Synonyms for this word include : ferocious, savage, vicious, aggressive and more, also hardly adjectives applicable to a three year old girl.  I applaud parents who raise their children with a sense of purpose,  drive,  motivation and appropriate self confidence,  This word seems more likely to imply clambering over the side of a boat with a knife between their teeth prepared to slit the throats of  anyone who takes their favorite toy. If your toddler is truly "fierce" get help!

"Basically", "Absolutely",  Currently these may be the most overused words extant, because they are usually used as space fillers with no real thought for the meaning. Other than zero degrees Kelvin, "absolutely"  is fraught with murky meanings. The most common meaning is one that is impossible for essentially every human situation. Stop using it. "Basically", on the other hand, has no real meaning due largely to its indefinite application.

"There's no time like the present", "A watched pot never boils."  Since I just bemoaned the use of "absolute" in many situations, let's discuss two trite stale and banal phrases which are diametrically opposed.  "There's no time like the present" is always true, but is immediately invalid before you've finished uttering it! Only in Steven Hawking's world, and then only maybe, could there ever be another time like the present. Conversely, I have watched pots on the stove come to a boil. The  statement is provably erroneous.

"It was magical" It was not. It may have an explanation which escapes your feeble grasp of physics or sleight of hand, but magic?" Uh-uh.

So, for now, that's the kind of stuff which occupies the recesses of my mind. Sort of weird? I know, right?