Are you familiar with the expression? "What a maroon!"
A woman I work with uses it occasionally. Bugs Bunny used it often. I heard a guy use it on an old television show I watched last night. It means a fool, a stupid person, a real dumbass.
Another woman we work said she had never heard that expression till I used it one day.
When I said "as the crow flies" during a meeting about ZIP codes, the same woman laughed. She thought I'd made it up. Out of the 5 people in the conference room, only 2 of us knew it was a common expression.
I can understand how someone might not be familiar with "What a maroon" if they aren't familiar with Bugs Bunny cartoons (poor, deprived things), but "as the crow flies"?
That idiom is still in common use. Google the term. Read any Internet article about a "Great Circle Distance Formula" and it will probably use that term. Any site that provides a distance calculator probably tells you the miles are "as the crow flies". There are several blogs with that title. There are at least 15 books on Amazon.com and 5 songs on Youtube.com with "As the Crow Flies" in the title. There are at least 2 plays by that name. There's even a hair salon called "As the Crowe Flies" (the owner's name is Crowe).
I don't understand how college graduates have never heard the expression "as the crow flies."
But then I don't understand heavy metal music either.
2 comments:
I've gotten the same reaction from using "as the crow flies" in a conversation. Another one that confuses people when i use it is "it's greek to me". Which i suppose is a little more forgivable haha.
Hi, Renee - I liked to use "It's greek to me" during my college math classes. Most of the students there knew I was trying to be funny. Not so sure about the instructors.
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