Do You Feel Lucky?

(and feel free to comment! My older posts are certainly no less relevant to the burning concerns of the day.)

Saturday, October 08, 2011

Pah! Pt.2

The previous post is almost totally out-of-hand! I don't mean a bit of it. Who could possibly get such umbrage out of such a weak, little syllable? It's quite true I don't care for "meh," but the pitch and vitriol is just silly. Silly.

So fun to write those posts! All worked up over some mind-breakingly inconsequential thing. I seem to do a lot of those. Wow, imagine if I walked around like that? Finding that huge level of fault with all these things! I'm going to start giggling in a minute if I keep trying to picture how that lifestyle would work out. Wow.

I do say "Pah!", though. Every time. Can't even picture me going with "meh." Be more emphatic with your disdain, please! If you don't care, to the point where you need to express that you don't care, for God's sake say it like you mean it at least.

9 comments:

lacrema said...

Oooh, if we're chiming in with our favorites, which is, like it or not, what I am doing, I would like to throw the full force of my personality behind "Hmph."

dogimo said...

A worthy word to put your full force behind! There's no mealy whiff of indifference to it. Hmph does not smack of apathy as "meh" does. Hmph doesn't meander its wavering course mumbling oh well I could take it or leave it I guess but really blah blah eh who cares. A good "HMPH" leaves no one in doubt as to what you think - and whether you think it matters.

When I put some oomph to a hmph, all concerned are given to know: "Oh, I don't believe I will be taking it."

HMPH!!

Mel said...

A few days ago I sent an email to a work mate who was sitting close by... it was a whinge that ended with me signing of with harrumph. After reading my email she asked me to say it out loud, and when I did it sounded a bit silly I must say. In fact, it took me a few attempts to get the right inflection, and even then it was still a bit strange sounding. Best left on paper maybe.

dogimo said...

Hm. Call me up sometime and we'll compare harumphs. It sounds perfectly natural when I do it! Natural, albeit guttural.

In fact, I'm pretty sure it's one syllable. Yet you still get all the letter!

dogimo said...

HAHAHA

I just pictured (audio-pictured?) what a harrumph would sound like with an Australian accent. Wow, would that sound funny - I think that it might just be the accent, Mel.

Still, I'd need to hear the real thing first before making any official pronouncement.

Everyday Goddess said...

reminds me of bob dylan somehow.

i think he said it best when he sang, "i'd like to pah meh time in mozambique."

dogimo said...

That's a perfectly valid point - "meh" isn't always a pat dismissal! Depending on context, the word "meh" may mean many other things, especially in the hands of a master of lyricism and mystic of enunciation such as Dylan. I'd say here, the "meh" is completely unobjectionable.

Mel said...

You're right, it could be the accent. It was a Canadian who made me say it out loud. I like to think my pffts, tsks, and pshaws are quite universal though.

dogimo said...

Indeed! Yours is a "pfft" heard 'round the world.