I had him: Garrett disects weird sayings

"I had him in ____": This phrase probably started as a way to disseminate the skanks in a class from the non-skanky ones. I'm sure some leather jacket wearing teenage male with blue jeans and slick-backed hair told his friends he "had" a girl in class alright. This was probably followed with "giggity-giggity-GOO". The friends thought he simply meant he had previously met the girl in a class they took together. Eventually it became a mainstay in the teenager's lexicon.

"______-ing like a madman": I have no idea where this started. Though linguists at Berkely have some interesting theories including England and a king, there are no solid leads. I personally don't think many of the things we do really deserve this phrase, however. Unless you've been "killing" like a madman or "yelling expletives" like a madman or "riding nuclear bombs as they rain down on russia" like a madman. I don't think madmen do many of the productive things we say a madman does. Unless you've been running into white padded walls lately you should probably remove this simile from your vocabulary.

"Holy crap/$#!T" (that actually looks a lot like the word): This obviously points back to when Jesus was crucified. As we all know, the one way to tell if a person is dead is if they lose control of their bowels. Well, Jesus definitely died. Upon seeing this, one of the apostles (presumably Matthew), always the observational humorist, commented, "Holy crap!" From that day forth it became a phrase after you've seen or heard something unexpected. Definitely a "keeper" phrase.

"What's up?": This phrase began when Sir Isaac Newton published his Principia. In this he detailed the conversation that led to his discovery of gravity. At the time Newton was in a neckbrace after a grueling Quiz Bowl, in which he pinched a nerve. He was now in a brace and could only look down and straight ahead. A local jester (the medieval equivalent of Tom Green) came by and jokingly asked "The Newt" (as Sir Isaac Newton was then known as) "Whats up?" The Newt, upset at this remark saw a fallen apple, hurled it at him and said, "There that's whats up. Wait...now it's down. Hmmm..." That story solidified "What's up?" as a medieval pop-culture staple, and it remains so today.

So there you have it, the real beginnings and explanations of the phrases we all use. Feel free to email any phrases that might be of interest to you. As always, free.utah@gmail.com