"Kilt check" question

[HarborSpringsPiper]

Don't you mean you couldn't care less? Saying you could care less means that you do care.

BTW, I meant to respond to this earlier. This is one of those crazy American idioms. I've heard it either way. Here's an explanation. Copy and Paste is always easier, sorry!

"could care less” is one of those idiomatic expressions, particularly in American English, that doesn’t necessarily mean what it says. There are numerous suggestions for the origin of the phrase. The most recent of these is that “I could care less” is a corruption of the term “I couldn’t care less,” possibly first used in the UK in the 1940s. By the 1960s, Americans had adopted “I could care less.” Was it laziness, poor hearing or deliberate irony?



Many contend it was laziness, much like the phrase “a hot cup of coffee,” changing to, "who wants a hot cup?" Most people would prefer to have a cup of hot coffee, or eat their cake and have it too. Simple reversals or omissions of words can result in phrases like “I could care less,” when what you really mean is you don’t care at all.

There is some suggestion that the phrase “I could care less” may have been adopted because it fit into certain Yiddish phrases that deliberately mean the opposite and can be viewed as sarcastic. Such phrases include, “I should be so lucky,” which really means you’re not likely to have the luck. Another phrase, “Tell me about it,” means the opposite. It’s merely a way to agree with the speaker. Alternately, speaking the term “Testify!” as used in certain Christian churches, is a similar agreement that seldom means someone is actually going to sit down or stand up and give a testimony of how they converted to Christianity.

Another theory, advanced by linguistics specialist Henry Churchyard, suggested the statement “You know nothing and you care less” used in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park is the origin of the term. If this were the case, the “know nothing” would be comparative to caring less than the little you know. The current version of the phrase would then represent idiom by omission.

It should be stated that Mansfield Park is one of Austen’s least popular books, and was in general slammed by the critics during Austen’s time and thereafter. That people would quote from it is in significant dispute. However, if Austen used the term as one common to her day, it’s possible it was already in use. The whole quote “You know nothing and you care less, as people say,” is important because it advances the possibility the phrase was in use in Austen’s day and she is not its inventor.


In any case, “I could care less,” must be interpreted as not caring at all. Whether by omission, design, laziness or quote, it’s one of those mixed up idioms that plagues learners of English.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-does-i-...-less-mean.htm

[herminator]

(& I still don't know if Grant ever finally got his much desired kilt check )

No way, you´d have to get past that ferocious rubber chicken!

And that is a relative of the KILLER RABBIT!

[Chainsaw02]

OK, OK, OK enough now. Let'um look if they want. I've got nothing to hide. Besides, I'm a naturist.

Larry Dirr

[wildrover]

One of the benefits of wearing a kilt is that your landing gear doesn't tie itself in a knot...well, unless you're wearing trunks underneath, and I'm pretty certain some of you are wearing trunks at the moment .

Do not confuse equal rights and equal respect with moral or social equivalency. It is simply absurd to claim that kilt-checking a man is equivalent to any similar action involving women and children.

That girl dressed to kill? Yes, she is looking for attention...but not from everyone.

Kilts are no different. I am not looking for attention from hambeasts or 22-stone rugby players, and my conduct in those scenarios will suggest to others what is or is not appropriate. Several excellent suggestions have already been posted, as far as responding to unwanted kilt checks.

It's worth keeping in mind that if you are wearing a kilt, it will happen as surely as any girl dressed sexy in a club knows that somebody, somewhere, sometime during the night, is going to grab some part of her body.

Don't be immediately crying to the cops because somebody lifted your kilt. The list of Registered Sex Offenders contains everything from child molesters and rapists, to people who were caught peeing in public...so if it's a single unexpected kilt check...find a more appropriate way to deal with the matter than using a nuclear weapon to squash an insect. Z's example of "2nd time, you get an ***-kicking and I drag you to the bouncer" is a good one.

[Zardoz]

What I usually get is a woman wanting to have her picture taken with me and she will slide her hand down the back of my kilt. Some offer an explanation, "I was just straightening your pleats".

You know, that happens to me now and then, those pleats do get outta whack sometimes!

[davedove]

But that is in regard to me, not others. I deem the attitude - that anyone wearing a kilt is fair game - equivalent to that which states that anyone dressed "provocatively" is "asking for it" sexually.

That's my main complaint as well. A LOT of people seem to think that if a man wears a kilt, he has somehow become an exhibitionist and wants people to see what's under it.

I've got no problem when a playful lass comes up and gives a slight lift (not revealing). But when someone just grabs and lifts, revealing everything to everyone, that has crossed way over the line.

[Highlander31]

You know, that happens to me now and then, those pleats do get outta whack sometimes!

Amen Z,...Amen.

[jkane]

I have never gotten angry. Almost got mad once because it was a man, and he grabbed the front, not the back. That was more scared than mad. I did not know what was gonna be next.

Weird, but I find when I am with people who are expected to be "bad" they tend to be respectful and ask first. It's the "prudes" who seem to take delight in unexpected lifting without asking first. Basically ... if I meet a woman with a skirt who would let me see what's under it, she will never look under without permission. Yet, if it's a woman who would never let me see her's she much more likely to grab, look, and run!

I also prefer to be asked so I can prepare myself. Sometimes I need to adjust a little before sharing a peek.

The only time I denied a request to look under was in a very public park where there were children. It just didn't feel right. She was quite insistent. I just could not do it.

[Jack Daw]

Apparently, I don't get out enough.

[Riverkilt]

Hey Larry,

Long time Naturist too. But not stupid around kids...they're short...I don't wanna hear "Mommie Mommie!!" Its my choice as to when to up the area of my vitamin D receptors exposure to the Sun.

And, in a most sensible cross over, there is a kilt group on one of the Naturist forums.

Kilted or not, its all about FREEDOM!!!