By Jim Hagarty
2008
It is what it is.
That’s a popular expression these days.
But what is it?
As it is being used by increasing numbers of people, including too many in the media, it seems to indicate a situation simply has to be accepted because “it is what it is.” That puts me in mind of an old Popeye saying that went something like, “I am what I am and that’s all what I am.” But at least you knew what Popeye was getting at. If you didn’t like him, buzz off. He wasn’t going to change to suit you.
But “it is what it is”?
Hmmm!
I have always liked Popeye but I’m not sure I’d like to use the happy little mutterer as a grammatical model.
I love the English language and for 32 years have made my living using it. Maybe that’s why I get cranky at people who prefer to communicate through popular but sometimes nonsensical phrases than to “do the heavy lifting” (yuck) of thinking up precise ways to express themselves. So-called creative writers, especially, who can’t be bothered thinking up their own expressions but instead spend their time stringing together a lot of clichés are especially irksome.
Someone once, on a particularly hectic day, asked me how things were going. I am not Ernest Hemingway, but I was teaching a journalism class at the time and didn’t want to set a bad example. So, instead of saying, “I’m busier than a one-armed paper hanger” (an expression I’ve actually always loved), I replied, “I feel like a frog trying to hop across a highway.” Later I added, “Highway 401”. Still later, “at rush hour.” It didn’t take that much work to come up with something of my own. Not an award winner, but all mine.
“Sucks to be you”, was kind of cute, but is fading away. “Get a clue!” Similarly drifting off. (Offshoot: He couldn’t buy a clue.)
It’s hard to believe but there seems to be just as much Valley girl speak around as ever, including statements spoken as questions: “So I was walking down the street? And this guy comes up to me? He asks me for the time?”
Double yuck.
“No brainer” has had its day as far as I’m concerned, as have “brain fart”, “senior’s moment”, “healthy scratch.”
But one of the worst word offenders that I can think of is “literally”, used literally millions of times a day all around the world. It once meant that I was talking about something that actually happened or was actually true rather than a figure of speech – literally rather than figuratively. Today it is just used to impress others with how honest the speaker is being which brings me to “honestly.” When someone precedes a comment with this word, it makes you wonder if anything he or she says that isn’t preceded by it is spoken “dishonestly”. It is a substitute for “in my opinion” or “as for me”, but it is unnecessary. And with some people, every time they precede a comment with it, I brace myself for something that might not be all that honest.
As a popular hockey commentator in Canada often says, “You young kids out there, listen up!” (Another terrible one.) Think for yourselves! Don’t run with the pack! And don’t ever think a thing “is what it is.”
An original thinker can always change it.
Honestly.
