The copy machine is now forcing everyone to work around the inconvenience of not being able to do work in the office properly. One of my coworkers that needed to use the machine was disappointed that the toner had finally run to a critically low level so that it left streaks in the paper where it could no longer complete the page. “It’s finally given up the ghost, has it?”

This was the first time I had ever heard this expression. My parents never used this, and no one I know has ever said this around me before. I learned it somewhere in a secondhand way, but I must have heard it incorrectly. I thought the expression was actually, “It gave up the goat.” It always struck me as nonsensical, but it’s not like I think of machines being inhabited by ghosts either. They are both silly expressions, but at least I was able to instantly realize that my coworker’s phrase makes a lot more sense than what I thought the phrase was. “That gets my goat,” and “Gave up the goat” must have gotten a wire crossed in my brain.

I was a little sensitive about the issue of mistakes, because earlier in the week I had given an incorrect etymology for the word “Yellow Journalism“.which coincidentally was discussed in detail in the Caustic Soda episode this week. If I had taught that lesson a day later, I would have gotten the information correct and had a few good examples to boot, but I was speaking in an impromptu manner and didn’t have any fact checking resources at hand (primitive white board only classrooms are sadly typical where I work).

It was in a lecture where my information was researched and prepared, but the one time I try to work without notes I got my folk etymology all wrong. When I came into class after that lecture, not only had I needed to correct myself in front of students for accuracy, but I was conscious of the fact that stuff happening in the office made me aware that my English was riddled with errors.

At this point, my brain is just a puddle of loosely associated words, some knowledge of Magic the Gathering cards, and lots of pop culture references ten years out of date. (shakes head in disgust)