what it is ain't exactly clear

One Reader Comment on the SAC story which we quoted here yesterday said, "now how about some indictments about the fraud that caused toxic waste mortgage bonds to be marketed and sold as AAA assets?" --

I don't think there's any such thing as "toxic waste mortgage bonds" -- what they meant, probably, was simply "toxic mortgage bonds."

It's one of those phrases where people are so used to having the word "waste" come after the word "toxic" that it's hard to leave it out.

I notice things like that, a lot -- where an expression, a phrase, gets used incorrectly -- (no big criticism, not putting down the person who says it -- it happens -- it's hard to say "toxic" without saying "toxic waste"...)  And sometimes the incorrect -- or less accurate usage becomes the main way people use the phrase, simply through common usage.  Say it wrong often enough, and that becomes how people say it.

(Oh! -- this one's hard for me! -- when a person wants to emphasize that they don't care about something -- really a lot -- as in, ("Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn")... they'll say,

"I could care less!!"

aaauugghhkkgglmr

The original expression was, "I couldn't care less."
Like -- it would be impossible for me to care any less, because I DON'T CARE.
That would be the correct way.
But people started expressing that same feeling by saying,

"I could care less"

and it stuck.  Waves of generations of new children grew up to be adults, expressing the "I-don't-care" idea by saying, "I could care less" and now that's how we say it.
(It's been driving me crazy since I first noticed it in about fifth grade.)

============ It's like the "animal activists."  The term was originally "animal-rights-activists" but often you hear people say the phrase and leave out the word "rights" ... and dear Lord, when I hear someone mention

"animal activists"

all I can think of is a group of dogs and cats and maybe a horse and a deer, stoically walking a picket line carrying signs which read, "Occupy Wall Street," or "Boycott Big Pharma"...

Stay sane.
Maintain.

-30-