Meaningless point #4

For those of you who care — and especially those of you claiming not to care — pay attention.

The all-too-frequently mutilated phrase intended to express indifference is, “I couldn’t care less.” Think about it, and suddenly all the other mutations of this expression seem as silly as they are off target in stating true apathy.

Very often, we hear, “I could care less.” Simply put, this means the speaker does in fact care, at least to some measurable degree.

But the butchering of the expression gets even sillier.

Many times, I’ve heard something like, “I could care o’ less.” I have no bloody clue what this means, other than it makes the speaker look stupid.

My guess is that this bizarre phrase is an inbred descendant of the properly structured, “I could not have cared less.” (I’m not sure, but I’d bet over time the “have” became “of,” and the “not” was simply dropped. Eventually, the “of” changed its position in the sentence and became “o,’” and the phrase completed its journey to the swamplands of illiteracy.)

Andy Warhol may have been correct in predicting each of us will have his/her own 15 minutes of fame. Think about the impression you’ll make.