First, I wanted to report that Rowan went to the cabinet where we keep recycling, opened the door by the handle, and shocked, said!!! I can reach the HANDLE! I opened it by the handle!!
My boy is growing, that's for sure.
Second, you know the kind of person i am, I keep hearing the phrase, "not so much" from professors, pretty much anywhere. I was certain it was well known because of someone on TV, and because we don't have one, I looked elsewhere to educate my ignorance. I did a little searching, and lo and behold, a language health advisory from the The New Yorker says:
Language Health Advisory No. 3
“Not so much”
This catchphrase has not yet fully crossed over into the hot zone, but the danger signs are mounting. Its Google Repetition Index of 9.1 million is misleadingly inflated by its orthodox uses, which are not so much common as ubiquitous. (A better metric might be its Google Blog Repetition Index, a relatively low but still ominous 1.12 million.)
Its precise origins have not yet been definitively pinned down, although one researcher has traced its popularity to its repeated employment by Jon Stewart and the writers of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” It is still fresh enough for Stewart to wring a few dozen more laughs out of it, but bloggers and feature writers should be wary, as it is beginning to smell a bit ripe, à la “Duh!” and “Not!!”
the_new_yorker:http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/hendrikhertzberg/2007/10/language-health.html
In my estimation, since this was written, it has only become more widespread, even appearing in my casual speech... I guess it's better than "like". Which I can't shake, despite my best intentions. I remember a linguist at CU studying the multi-use-ness of "like" when I was studying there. It is useful, but certainly I should be able to use something a little more descriptive, right?
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