Caring Less
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Wait. Wait. Whoa Nellie. I am SO not getting any of that. With all due respect to your sources, missy, forgive me if I say that that's not making a lick of sense at all to me.missy wrote:I was told that "I couldn't care less" makes no sense because if I wasn't going to care why would I care less.
So - I was then told to use "I could care less", because I really didn't want to care at all about it.
It makes absolute sense to me that "couldn't care less" would be the meaningfully correct form if complete dismissiveness is what you're after. After all, if one doesn't care at all, how could one care less, then? Where's there to go from nowhere? If one doesn't care at all, then one couldn't care less, as caring any less would be impossible. If I could care less, then, why, I must care. Some. Maybe not much, but I must. My words say so.
That being said, although I try to remember not to, I utter the careless 'Merkin solecism myself. Afterward, usually I temporarily excuse myself and go off to a secluded place and berate myself for not saying what I really meant.
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http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Rat%27s_assjbarter wrote:(I do however have a bag of rats' asses and will gladly present you with one if you find a topic that bothers me)
I think the fact the phrase I could care less is rattled off without regard to grammar is part of the insult. Proper grammar is reserved for people that are actually respected.
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Re: Caring Less
When she posted that I started to say something about it, but I then decided not to because I wanted to say something else, and it would have detracted.jbarter wrote:From the context I took this to mean something along the lines of "This is a matter of total indifference to me". Here in the UK the equivalent phrase is "I couldn't care less". Does anyone know why the difference? Taken literally they do mean slightly different things but do they have the same inference on both sides of the pond?In another thread missy wrote:I could care less
As for saying "I Could Care Less," which subject Dear Abby once dealt with, I always thought it was a case of over-compensating, much as one catches oneself saying "can't hardly" and then recalls being told it's "can hardly."
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In these parts, "A face like a bag of spanners" is an ungallant way to describe the aspect of a lady not overburdened with beauty or softness of countenance.izzarina wrote:...
I thought it was supposed to be a bag of spanners?? Did I miss something? Or am I confusing it all....again? Not that I want a bag of spanners, or a bag of rats' asses for that matter.
And whether the blood be highland, lowland or no.
And whether the skin be black or white as the snow.
Of kith and of kin we are one, be it right, be it wrong.
As long as our hearts beat true to the lilt of a song.
And whether the skin be black or white as the snow.
Of kith and of kin we are one, be it right, be it wrong.
As long as our hearts beat true to the lilt of a song.
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As for Could/couldn't care less... It only takes a few moments' thought to see which makes sense and which is drivel.
A lady I know once related a long tale of her youth. She lamented the fact that during her school days she was always in trouble. Her reason was "I wouldn't do as my told".
What?
I finally figured out that she had, presumably for many, many years, misinterpreted the common instruction "do as you're told" as "do as your told", and had never given the actual meaning (or lack thereof) of the sentence any thought at all.
Odd.
A lady I know once related a long tale of her youth. She lamented the fact that during her school days she was always in trouble. Her reason was "I wouldn't do as my told".
What?
I finally figured out that she had, presumably for many, many years, misinterpreted the common instruction "do as you're told" as "do as your told", and had never given the actual meaning (or lack thereof) of the sentence any thought at all.
Odd.
And whether the blood be highland, lowland or no.
And whether the skin be black or white as the snow.
Of kith and of kin we are one, be it right, be it wrong.
As long as our hearts beat true to the lilt of a song.
And whether the skin be black or white as the snow.
Of kith and of kin we are one, be it right, be it wrong.
As long as our hearts beat true to the lilt of a song.