Peg Herring's Blog - Posts Tagged "hyperbole"
It Will Be in the Last Place You Look
Well, of course it will, because then you'll stop looking for it.
We say stuff every day that makes no sense, and nobody even bats an eye. Okay, there's one right there. We use expressions that are archaic, but I wonder if they ever really made sense. Dead as a doornail, for example. Who decided that a doornail is deader than other types of nails?
We tell people to do things as if they can't figure it out for themselves. We scream at baseball players to run after they hit the ball. What else are they paid millions of dollars to do? Is it a choice? Are they thinking, "Should I run or go out for a latte?" Still, thousands of fans are shouting, "Run!" or "Go!" Should we add, "Travel to first base and then turn slightly to the left!"
We exaggerate regularly, but nobody calls us liars. I have a sort of mental scale that I apply to other people's memories. If they say, "We used to..." whatever, I figure it happened twice. When they add a word, "We used to always..." it might have happened three times.
I confess, I am prone to overblown adjectives. Everything is "wonderful" or "amazing". I know better, but then, a lot of other wonderful and amazing people do the same thing.
Conversation is just funny, even when it doesn't mean to be. We have proscribed roles to play, and we say what is expected of us, even when it doesn't make sense. I'm sure you could find the reasons for it in some psychology book, but I bet it will be in the last place you look.
We say stuff every day that makes no sense, and nobody even bats an eye. Okay, there's one right there. We use expressions that are archaic, but I wonder if they ever really made sense. Dead as a doornail, for example. Who decided that a doornail is deader than other types of nails?
We tell people to do things as if they can't figure it out for themselves. We scream at baseball players to run after they hit the ball. What else are they paid millions of dollars to do? Is it a choice? Are they thinking, "Should I run or go out for a latte?" Still, thousands of fans are shouting, "Run!" or "Go!" Should we add, "Travel to first base and then turn slightly to the left!"
We exaggerate regularly, but nobody calls us liars. I have a sort of mental scale that I apply to other people's memories. If they say, "We used to..." whatever, I figure it happened twice. When they add a word, "We used to always..." it might have happened three times.
I confess, I am prone to overblown adjectives. Everything is "wonderful" or "amazing". I know better, but then, a lot of other wonderful and amazing people do the same thing.
Conversation is just funny, even when it doesn't mean to be. We have proscribed roles to play, and we say what is expected of us, even when it doesn't make sense. I'm sure you could find the reasons for it in some psychology book, but I bet it will be in the last place you look.
