Monday 18 December 2006

"it's not rocket science"

I don't want to hear it anymore.

Mr Squiggle mastered it and i doubt he slogged at it 24/7 so it's not really that difficult, and why not just say that?

Has the expression only been in use this century? I don't recall hearing it until i returned to office work in April 2000. I was very slow on the uptake as the girl friday and everyone kept chiding me for stocking the tea trolley with sachets of Coffee Mate instead of miniature motel portions of soy milk. Steep learning curve or what.

One phrase that i was really expecting to take off was "sex up". The English press frequently and magnificently used it - Blair "sexing up" intelligence and the dossier on weapons in Iraq. I was really getting irritated and loving it at the same time, such a fine line between pleasure and pain, contriving all kinds of conversations to use it, keenly anticipating Kath and Kim using the expression in the next series but it all fizzled out.

Kind of like this posting.

hot, hottt and hotties are now passé. Have derived so much pleasure from hot and its variations since I first heard it used that way by the common person and not rock stars or jocks in 1998 but goodness knows how long it had been used before that. In 2007 there'll be a new term so bye, bye hot.

and goodbye 'like' which is very over. Very is back and rack off "so".

24/7 is 4ever. Before you die you will have uttered it sincerely. Scary but true.

As for swear words well they are all passé and the once potent have been usurped by suck, flute and the classic, Schweppes. I'm never swearing again. Swearing has lost its oomph, as have i, and is pretty much like it's not rocket science or shit happens.

Haven't heard anything new recently, well apart from whoosher, but that struck me as rather contrived, and skill but that's big in Tasmania, and i really long to hear something of world-class proportions, so I cannot wait, along with Kel Richards and Ruth Wajnryb, for 2007. It is going to be a bumper year full of change, promise and many milestones.

7 comments:

boy moritz said...

Martin Amis in the newspaper the other week was bemoaning expressions like "it's a no-brainer".

David Nichols said...

On Compass on Sunday Ruddy said 'you don't have to be a Rhodes scholar...' instead of 'rocket science' but then went on to mention streets in the same sentence, which surely confused many (of the 10 people who watch Compass). I came very close to saying I had sexed up a conference paper to make it a journal article but at the last minute said I 'prettied it up' which now I think of it was pretty bizarre but you know I was trying to be macho about it.

David Nichols said...

I am not suggesting I did the above on Compass.

Mistress Bel said...

I have never said no-brainer but would love to say it in earshot of martin amis and see his reaction. but if i were in earshot within martin amis i wouldn't say anything i'd be rather gobsmaked, well apart from stage whispering to all and sundry, look there is martin amis, he is even shorter than i thought!!

krudd would really have liked to have been a rhodes scholar, did his voice quaver when he said it. Krudd loves that expression i've heard him say it before. Google kevin rudd and rhodes scholar he is constantly saying it on lateline. I think it's a cbt mantra for him.

fortunately that other expression "then some" has never really taken off. I recall Splodge using it during his 1st spell as opposition leader.

you really did use sex up didn't you. YOu should be proud. I wish it had been on compass and before the actual conference you were interviewed by Doogue where you weighed up the use of pretty up versus sex up.

I have genuinely said "it's not rocket science".

i just can't think of a new term to replace hot but it has to happen.

i believe that today i have reached column 8 status. I am proud.

Anonymous said...

For a grab at Column 8 glory try 'rocket surgery'. Stay in touch has already gone with 'vaginoplasty'

Wayne Davidson said...

Where do we stand on 'totally' these days? And there's the strange expression 'big time' (eg: "I liked that big time"). Very Kath & Kim.

There's also 'It's not brain surgery' for the 'rocket science' expression.

On a related note I'm all Martin Amis-y when people say 'Taxi!' at the sound of a breaking glass or worst of all, 'Are we keeping you up?' if one dares yawn in a place of work.

I totally have problems with those - big time.

Mistress Bel said...

can never get enough of big time or totally. they are tops.

and i totally agree with you about awkup? Haven't heard that taxi one but will give it a burl this weekend. Sounds heelarrrious.