As you may recall, I have a BIG problem with people who begin their sentences with "So". Course that's nothing pesonal for anyone here who does that. How did that come about anyway????
That is quite different-I can accept THAT. But in that line, I'd much prefer "Um". To me, "So how've you been?" appears more appropriate than "So it's so humid out". .
It's not just English. Many European languages will use and or thus or well to sort of ease into the conversation. So, um, now you know.
I recently overhead this conversation between two gents that ran into each other at Piggly Wiggly. @richgem knows Dutch, so I'm hoping he can translate for me. 1: "Hey Dude, did you crash the party last night?" 2: "100%! I went with my BFF. It was a rager!" 1: "Lit, huh? Rad!" 2: "Then we hit the concert. It was sick! Everything about the night was on point." 1: "Well, you've been crushing it at your new job, and you needed time to hang out. Legit." 2: "Ya, well, you know how it goes. Even players wanna chill sometimes." 1: "Totally. Well, bro, gotta run." 2: "No worries. Later."
This is great stuff! I’m paraphrasing the great Norm Crosby who told this on the old short-lived TV game show, Can You Top This? It was hosted by Wink Martindale, circa 1970. I loved that program. The regular comedians were all such talented joke tellers! But here’s the joke as I remember it hearing it once at the age of eleven… I needed some new shirts, so my wife sent me to JC Penney’s. She said they’re having a sale. Look for the shirts with “celanese polyester.” So I drive over to JC Penney’s and I’m looking at piles of shirts everywhere. There’s a dozen tables loaded with shirts, and they’re all on sale! And she wants me to look for celanese polyester. I see cotton blend, I see silk shirts, nylon shirts, but I’m not seeing any celanese polyester. I’m going out of my mind and I’m about to walk out when I see a sales clerk folding shirts a half a dozen tables over. I didn’t know what I was doing, so I called out to him, pointing to the table next to me, I said, “Hey! Are they celanese?!” He said, “No, they’re giving them away!”
I hope your Grammar didn't hear that!(Grandma). You say they were "Gents", eh? Well, THAT didn't go over well. These days, I see we hear "so" much more offen than "um". Whatever happened to "Uh"?