Sunday, September 9, 2012

It's All Good!

The first time I heard the phrase It’s All Good was a few years ago during a very tense work meeting. Something got royally screwed up, but someone - not me - had the presence of mind to not let the negativity get out of hand, and said it.

What a magical phrase, I thought! Let’s get past the negatives and just make the best of the situation, it seemed to say, and I was all for that!

But alas, the phrase may have had its day.


The Wedding Feast of Orlando, or Jaybee Turns Hot Coffee Into... Cold Coffee

The Jaybee Family attended a wedding last month, and by guy measures, it all went great.  There was, however, a minor mishap the next morning, when everyone gathered for breakfast.at the hotel.  The hostess didn’t know we were coming so not everyone (us) got to sit together.  By gal measures, this qualified as a catastrophe.

And every time another relative walked into the restaurant, they’d stop by our table, and we’d go through the minutia of the situation all over again. The fact that it was an all you can eat buffet didn’t seem to matter. So having anointed myself the All Wise One, I tried to calm everyone down by saying, It’s All Good, and watch that phrase work its magic on everyone, or go get more home fries..

But after about the tenth time the magic wore off and my wife replied:

“It is NOT all good!  They messed up the arrangements and Michelle (the bride) is upset!”

Okay, I guess that counts as not all good.  Point taken. Nonetheless, I countered with the usually decisive: It Is What It Is.

But Mrs. Jaybee riposted with the admittedly all-powerful F*ck off.

So that’s two of my favorite phrases biting the dust in the space of a single conversation. Mrs. Jaybee’s phrase - immune to fads - has the staying power, it seems.


I Swear It’s True, I Got It Off the Internet:

If you study the etymology of “it’s all good”, you’ll find that it originated in Auschwitz in 1939. In German, “Ich al Guden”’ literally means “I’m not Jewish”, but quickly evolved to mean “Oh, that’s your problem”. (Curiously, in Yiddish, it translates into “We’re f*cked”.)

Over time, this meaning has been lost, and in an age where irony no longer exists (see the RNC platform) it evolved into a positive statement.  Apparently this is the last phase before a phrase passes into actual obsolescence, which is marked by the use of the phrase F*ck off in reply.

So not only is It’s All Good now passing away. As a former adherent, I am also willing to admit that this is a good thing.


Hooray for Everything!:

I say this because I want to complain.  This hasn’t been the best summer - too hot and humid for my taste. But of course, how bad can summer be?  So overall, it was only Good.

And it hasn’t been a great year for music, either.

Oh, It’s been good.  But as I’ve said on other occasions, good just isn’t good enough any more.

Why? Because I don’t have the time I used to have.  And I want to fill that time up with great.

So far, I’ve gotten more music this year than I normally do. This is due to some gift cards, and Amazon.com’s monthly $5 mp3 sales. And I’m having a good time.  There’s been a lot of good music.

But not much GREAT music.

Nothing that changes your life, that interrupts your day, even though it isn’t on.  The closest so far has been Beck’s Sea Change and Imperial Teen’s On.

I’m slowly drowning in a sea of good, when I’d just as soon die from a blast of GREAT to the head.

But when I’m feeling this way, there’s one thing I tell myself that puts it all into perspective:

Hey, Whatta You Gonna Do?

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Jaybee said...

So, awful Holocaust jokes seems to be the way to go...