RIP - The expression "That's how I roll"

02/07/09, 11:17 PM

Boston, MA - In a late night weather report, the Channel 7 meterologist, a middle-aged white man who we believe to be Pete Bouchard - though this has not been confirmed, effectively killed the "slang" expression, "That's how I roll" by using it in his weather forecast on the 7 News Weather segment this past Saturday night.

"That's how I roll" was born in the late 90s and featured prominently in the world of hip hop. It trickled down into white suburban teenage language, then further along until it died tonight when the geeky weatherman used it to talk about the 41 degree balmy weather we will experience this weekend.

"That's how I roll" was cousin to "Let's roll", which saw it's demise after being overplayed for its valiant use during the attacks of September 11, 2001.

In other news, "Change we can believe in" is just about to die and clinging for dear life, and "LOL", sadly, commited suicide, because it far too dorky.

Diagramming Sarah Palin

Sarah, in an interview: No, you know, we were told when we've got to be believing if we have enough elected officials who are going to be standing strong on fiscal conservative principles and free enterprise and we have to believe that there are enough of those elected officials to say, 'No, OK, that's enough.'

• No, : interjection
  you know, : colloq. & filler
• we were told : pro & verb phrase
• when we've got to be believing : [this is where it gets murky] when-prep; we-pro; 've got to be believing - verb phrase
• if we have enough elected officials : if - prep [now there are 2 prep phrases without a clear, comprehensible attribution]; we - pro; have -v; enough - adj; elected - adj; officials - n
• who are going to be standing strong : who - pro (ant for "elected officials"); are going to be standing strong - verb phrase, including idiom "standing strong"
• on fiscal conservative principles and free enterprise : on - prep; fiscal [sic] - should be "fiscally" because it is a modifier of the adjective "conservative"; therefore, it should be the adverb not adjective; conservative - adj; principles - n; and - conj; free - adj; enterprise - n
• and we have to believe: and-conj; we -pro; have to believe - verb phr
• that there are enough of those elected officials to say, : that - conj; there - pro; are - vb; enough - adj; of - prep; those - adj; elected - adj; officials - n; to say - infinitive
• 'No, OK, that's enough.': no - int; ok - idiom/filler; that - pro; 's - is; enough - adj

So, if I were her copyeditor or English teacher I would make the following changes:

No, you know, [we were told when] we've got to [be believing if we] have [enough] elected officials who are going to [be] stand[ing] strong on fiscally conservative principles and free enterprise. [and] We [have to believe that there are enough of] need ]those] elected officials [to] who say, 'No, OK, that's enough.'

The articulate speaker would have said something like:

No. What we need now are elected officials who will stand strong on fiscally conservative principles and free enterprise. We need elected officials who say, "No, that's enough spending. It's time to conserve."

But, I'm in favor of a second stimulus package - and a New New Deal type thing, for that matter - so I would never say that.

At the end of the day

Idioms are idioms. Idiosyncrasies are idiosyncrasies. We all have our peccadilloes. Mine is that I say, "You know?" or a variation of it, too often. You know what I mean?

That being said (<--example), I have one that I cannot stand.

"At the end of the day..."

For some unknown reason, I cringe when people say it. I am a news and political junkie and commentators, pundits and even surrogates for candidates say it often. Just now I watched a video from Obama's campaign manager, and when he meant "at the end of the election campaign fund raising period" but what he said was "at the end of the day."

Grumble. Grumble.

AAHHH! In the Weekend Edition Saturday report on the Unity Rally, I just heard a Hillary supporter say, "I think we'll be okay. At the end of the day, in the voting booth, we'll check off Obama."

Inescapabale.

An enticing contest, I can attest

Ooooohhh, lordy. I just found out about something while listening to Morning Edition today:

The O. Henry Pun-Off in Austin, TX

Holy dream come true.

Although, I think if I were to enter, I would get creamed because as it is, I'm having a hard time trying to think of one under the pressure of writing a blog about a pun contest.

But I definitely know a few people who would be all about this thing. And, of course, the champion would have to be my brother's soon-to-be-father-in-law (that's a lot of hyphens), B il Bur ke.

When I told him that I was buying the new legal absinthe, he didn't miss a beat:

"Did you know that absinthe makes you fart?"

"Really?" I said.

"Yeah, and when you do it sounds like this, 'hhhaaandahhh.' "

"Hm," I said.

"So, it's just like they say:

Absinthe makes the fart go Honda."

Check out the details of the O. Henry Pun-Off here.