Here’s my running list: “flip side”, “read you loud and clear”, “dialed in”, “jumping on the bandwagon”.

Original Post: As I’ve surpassed my “demi centenarian” mark (would prefer to be a primo centurion) I’ve started to be more and more sensitive to my outdated speech patterns. I glommed onto this recently when I was talking about “jumping on the bandwagon”. There hasn’t been a goddam bandwagon for 70 years in this country. I wondered what might replace this (I proffered “find the rave” but that’s probably so 90s). I read there was this interesting post somewhere out there on this topic but couldn’t find it. I think I’ll keep digging…

I want to amend this a bit. I’m not trying to be hip - although I think that phrase right there is outdated. Nor am I trying to find the latest word for cool - because for some reason we still don’t have to. No, I’m just trying to listen to what I say and identify everyday phrases that are just not quite so everyday anymore. Things like “dialed in”. Who uses a dial anymore? I “read you loud and clear”. Read me? What do you mean, read me? Read my posts?

The thing that’s interesting me are phrases that came up in the past century to describe human situations and conditions that were borrowed from technologies that no longer exist or are rapidly fading away. Most of my examples come from forms of transportation and communication.