Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Have you ever felt haunted by a phrase? Like no matter how much you don't want to hear it, somehow you hear it said over... and over... and over. A few years ago the phrase that made my skin crawl was "we partied like rock stars." Everywhere I turned someone was saying it. Who really parties like a rock star except rock stars? The new phrase that I cannot seem to escape is "It is what it is." If you know my line of work, you can image how often this phrase can be applied.
Ex #1: "What does this report mean?"
Answer: "It is what it is."
Ex. #2 "Why is this program on the chopping block?"
Answer: "It is what it is."
And while often I think of certain words and phrases exclusive to my job, this phrase has now infiltrated the rest of my world. Even Urban Dictionary has an entry for it and it was voted as #1 cliche by USA Today in 2004.
It is what it is: A cliche, popular within the circles of coaches, business execs, and those of us who just want to say "It's happened. 'I'm going to forget about it. I'm going to move on. There is nothing that can be done about it."
Today, I innocently read an article on The Biggest Loser finale (we'll get back to that later) and there was a friggin quote by Heba using the expression.
“'It is what it is,' an obviously disappointed but resigned Salama responded, adding that she was still a winner for losing so much weight."
No wonder she didn't win. So then I got curious to see how many other times it had been used in a news article today and here are just a few examples:
"It's nice to be able to have people talk about the film, as opposed to us reading about the film," Cruise said. 'It is what it is. And I understand it. I do understand it."
I admit, it is a little depressing that this Lions season has been so bleak that I feel compelled to argue the merits of our kicker deserving a spot in a game that doesn't matter, but it is what it is.
“It is what it is,” Gretchen said, admitting her father is only four years older than her fiancé Jeff. “People are going to say what they’re going to say.”
Classicists could contend that a negative yield on U.S. Treasury paper would be rational simply because the market says so. Economically speaking, it is what it is. The market has spoken. And it suggests that investors expect deflation to cut overall prices faster than the negative yield they are willing to accept.
Said Devin Hester: "It's a lot of games that we had and let slip by, but it is what it is and it's reality, you can't go back and dwell on it. We just have to concentrate on these last two games and make sure that we win out and do our part."
1,952 news articles just in the last day. Please, just make it stop.
it is what it is = hey shut up, don't want to tak about that anymore.
It's like choosing to be a victim or victor in a situation. It means something different for each side. At one point or other we all fall on either side, but never always on one side.
Like the urban dictionary says, I use it to say I'm moving on, I accept I can't change the event, but I can learn from it and move on.
Others might have said, it is what it is, and never have moved on. I feel for them.