What at one time may have been considered as just slogans for ad campaigns, clichés and catch-phrases are popping up everywhere and it seems every day we come across a new one.
I am sure just about everyone has used one or two clichés or catch-phrases at some point, and many are quickly melding themselves in to our everyday jargon. Lately, my curiosity has been piqued as to where some of them originated and the circumstances surrounding the first utterance, and, more importantly what they are supposed to mean. Since so many of them are a double entendre, with one side having a literal connotation, they are oftentimes left wide open to interpretation, and what may mean something to one person may mean something totally different to someone else, or absolutely nothing.
I must admit my recent interest in the origin and meaning of some of the more common clichés and catch-phrases was sparked by something my adult son said to his wife a few weeks ago while preparing a bowl of cereal. As he was pouring the milk he commented: ‘Life is a bowl of cereal. Don’t let it get soggy.’ Hmmm…could it be that another cliché or catch-phrase is born? And what does it mean exactly? I am sure that a lot of the clichés and catch-phrases we use today came about under similar circumstances, just a regular person using a play on words to generate an alternate meaning.
As the weeks went by, that particular phrase came back to me time and time again and I started noticing how many clichés and catch phrases I personally used in my every day life, and how many were used around me. I kept a log for a couple of days. It was then time to put some of my internet research skills to the test to see what I could find out about these clichés and catch-phrases.
Good old Google provided me with thousands of hits on my various combinations of keywords. With so many hits though it soon became apparent that to prevent this from becoming my life long work, I would need to choose just a few, and hopefully the abridged version would satisfy my curiosity.
However, in the middle of my research, life threw me a curve ball and I ended up with too much on my plate. So this project will have to take a back seat for now, and I will just have to bite the bullet and tie up loose ends.
I really have no choice as I am between a rock and a hard place and can’t pass the buck. I don’t hold all the cards in this one and trying to fight it would be like opening a can of worms.
So I guess I just have to remember not to let the cat out of the bag or throw the baby out with the bath water and that life is not always a cake walk. Boy do I sometimes miss my salad days.