Please forgive the cliche, but I have a bone to pick with you. Back in the day, you suggested that the words we sometimes mis-speak are laden with some alternate meaning, usually having to do with sex. Some of us happen to disagree with you. For example.
I was at our church tea after community choir when a friend sat down at my table. I’d left practice early, so I asked a question of my fellow alto. “What did you sing after the hand job number?”
While the people at my table laughed, I began building a pretty good case against you, Dr. Freud. You see, one of the songs from Grease is called, Hand Jive.’ The fact that I called it something entirely different means nothing about my state of mind. NOTHING.
There are those of us living on the planet who happen to dwell in Freudian slip land. We frequently say the wrong thing. I once said, “Would you like some death with your soup?” to a little old lady, while handing her the bread basket. Honestly, bread and death both contain the letters ‘ea’ which almost makes them a slipdong. I mean a dipthong. (Think of a pair of tiny bikini panties. It helps.)
Meanwhile, some of us also like to use colourful descriptions. Like, ‘He was very thickheaded.’ This does not mean that your mind has taken a sexual turn. It just means that you’ve been singing the Hand Job song. (ha ha, just kidding.)
Once, at choir, a young French Canadian was struggling to sing her part. The conductor was trying to find her a good spot to stand in for the performance. Meanwhile, some of us (or maybe just me) were praying, “Please, don’t put her over here!” She had a strong accent, and tended to sing the words a couple seconds after everyone else had finished. Anyway, she took one look at me and said loudly, “I cannot take the hate.”
I immediately, and guiltily, jumped in. “Nobody hates you. Of course not!” The other altos all had their eyes averted. I was swimming in the deep end, and it was up to me not to sink. (cliches were invented for a reason.)
“Not the hate,” she said, with great irritation. “The hate.” I was dumbfounded. And then I realized she meant, “I cannot take the height.’ She was short, like me, and wanted to stand in the front row. Another meaning for dumbfounded? Finding out you are dumb. That was me, in the moment. Regardless. Sometimes, Sigmund Freud, a cigar is just a cigar. Even for a heavy smoker like you.
Judith Pettersen 