Have used the. “I’ll bite” meme here on , which IMO acknowledges the reader/responder is recognizing the comment/question is in essence throwing a gauntlet down to see who will respond. very one is aware and acknowledging that the original comment is a comment with an inherent challenge.
How about addressing in this thread expressions that are trite?
I vote for:
That’s how we roll
At the end of the day
Leveling the playing field
I’d be happy if I never heard those again.
What I’ve notice in working with people from different parts of the country is the speed with which they get to the point. I used to call different branches and usually I’d get “ITT, Jim speaking.” If I called a NY branch, I’d get “ITT” (said as if it were one letter, rapid fire). If I called a southern branch, I’d get “Good mornin’, this is Eye-Tee-Teeee Financial Services. We specialize in home loans. My name is Sue Ellen Sunny June, may I help you?”
By that time, I’d forgotten why I called.
Soda and pop- Milwaukee used soda, Madison pop back when and in college we had a transfer student who’d been in Missouri who said they called the drinks “soda-pop”. Coke is a specific brand.
Oh, and you know you’re in Wisconsin when people drink from a bubbler. So much simpler than “drinking fountain”. The ones at Madison’s Vilas zoo when I was a kid actually bubbled up from a concrete base.
Neck of the woods- common where I come from.
Since I dislike religions I will tell the rare stranger who wishes me a “blessed day” I’d rather have a good one. Snarky of me perhaps but people need to realize their view of the world isn’t the only one… Rattle their cage.
“By me” was used by a from the farm roommate in college- strange to my ears.
“Up north” means going to the woods north of where you live. Chicagoans go up north to southern Wisconsin, Madison people to central Wisconsin and those further north go even further north…
I grew up learning and using correct grammar but only learned most parts of speech labels in HS French. Who cares about nomenclature when proper usage is what it’s all about?
I prefer more succinct ways- no beating around the bush instead of saying things directly. Cloaking things in feel good phrases doesn’t sit well with me. Can anyone tell I’m outspoken?
“Up north” means going to the woods north of where you live. Chicagoans go up north to southern Wisconsin, Madison people to central Wisconsin and those further north go even further north…"
I just think it means north and has nothing to do with woods. If I go to the North Shore suburbs of Chicago to pick up my son or visit my sister or a friend, I’m going “up north.”
When I think of a bubbler, I think of the ceramic thing that puts out a thick stream of lukewarm water.
When I think of a water/drinking fountain, it’s the stainless steel kind that (usually) puts out a thinner stream of colder water.
So in my fantasy world, both exist. hehe
Here, Up north means north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Many of us are transplants from up north.
Here, in my neck of the woods, “up north” means Canada! 
wis75–yes, that is snarky. Pretty sure they know they don’t have the only view on the world.
To say something to “rattle their cage” is just rude.
Yeah, as an atheist, I don’t see anything other than kindness and politeness in “have a blessed day.”
“Have a blessed day”
“Hope you have a good day also”
(The non-snarky, did your thing response)
Trying to rattle the cage of someone who is being nice and wishing you a good day is just flat out mean spirited. My sister is an atheist, and she says “Bless you” when you sneeze simply as a “good things upon you” kind of thing. And also “I’m counting my blessings” not as things she got from God, but just things she feels lucky (or “blessed”) to have.
Whatever the origins of the word blessed, I believe many use it as a word of general, not religious, good will.
I say “there but for the grace of God go I” even though I’m agnostic. It’s conceptual, not a theological statement. I think we all know the difference between the person who is hitting you over the head with religious beliefs and the person who is just trying to be nice. I won’t personally say “I’ll pray for you” but if someone were to say it to me I would just interpret it as kind thoughts.
Some phrases that include the word God are useful, even to an atheist.
“Man plans, and God laughs.”
“From your lips to God’s ears.”
A word, a phrase, a sentiment, not only isn’t cheapened by the fact the devout use it but owes thanks that it found it’s way into the public domain because they did.
A like for this just isn’t enough. Agree completely.
Funny … being told to “have a blessed day” just rubs me up the wrong way. Probably because in our area it usually comes from patronizing fundamentalist evangelicals who would tell me I was going to hell if they knew I was Catholic.
Being religion-free, I suspect I’m heading there a lot faster than any Catholic is, but the evangelicals I’ve shared that fact with have always stuck to their guns… have a good one. And I’ve been in the South my entire life.
Would have irritated me when I was 20 or so, but I guess I’ve changed.
We didn’t use the the term “up north” when we lived in Chicago, but we sure used “downstate” for everything outside the collar counties. Even if the area in question was west or northwest. Still downstate.
I consider the vast majority of towns in NH which are over an hour from me to be “northern New Hampshire.”
People in West Virginia’s northern panhandle use “downstate” to describe anywhere south of the Mason-Dixon Line, which cuts the panhandle off from the read of the state.