Monday, March 14, 2022

I'm Gonna Be Strong

Call me squeamish, but simply hearing certain words spoken aloud can make me queasy. Oddly enough, among those words are “squeamish” and “queasy.” Nearly as bad: Gene Pitney’s voice, mayonnaise on corned beef, and the taste of strawberry Quik. Also among the things that make me squirm, that I find embarrassing and cringe-inducing, is when people say “out of” when they mean “from.” Unless you’re William S. Burroughs or a character in Guys and Dolls, it’s dumb. “They’re a small marketing consultancy out of Des Moines,” just sounds silly –unless by “small marketing consultancy” you mean “murder for hire operation.”

2 comments:

M.A. said...

I had a friend in college who was crazy about Gene Pitney -- she had all his records. 50 years later I still know "Town Without Pity" by heart. It's weird, the stuff that stays in your head forever...

Dave Maleckar said...

It isn't very pretty.