The Wrong Lilies

The Wrong Lilies

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Blah, blah, blah

When my mother was in her later years (she lived to be almost ninety-eight!), and something came along to frustrate her, she would say, “Blah, blah, blah.”   It turned out to be a very usable expression, far better and certainly far more descriptive than common expletives, which of course my mother would never ever have used in the first place.  For us, her family, it told us she wasn’t particularly thrilled with a situation, but that on the other hand, she wasn’t unbearably disappointed.  When she would make an inconsistent statement, for instance, such as that she no longer liked lemon yogurt when that had been her favorite for years and we had just brought some for her, and we would say, “But Mother ….”, then “blah, blah, blah” pretty well covered it for her.   It meant, “don’t worry about it,” or “it’s not important”, or “never mind”, or “let’s change the subject.”

Now, I find that it is an often-useful expression for minor upsets or frustrations or disappointments for my own self.  We go shopping for an ordinary product that we’ve used many times before, only to find it’s no longer stocked … anywhere.  “Well, blah, blah, blah.”

Such as when our beloved Pepsi One simply disappeared, and we contacted the company, and actually got an e-mail back that said indeed it was no longer being made.  Or when we hoped to see a recently-announced comet appearance, with all those ‘shooting stars’, only to find in the wee hours that clouds had moved in.  No rain, mind, just clouds.  To block the comet.

Okay, it’s not unusual to get the blahs.  Everyone gets the blahs at one time or another.  They are especially common during periods of extreme weather, or extreme Congressional stupidity, or extreme anything.  But think about it and you may find it as useful as we now do, to simply announce – well, you know.

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