Beech Tree News Network

Actually, Kathryn Zeta Jones is drop-dead-gorgeous.  Actually, Betty Grable had beautiful legs.  DID SHE EVER! (She was from my era.)  Say what? If you’ve feasted your eyes on either of these lovelies why would you need the word “actually”?
Recently first wife Bett asked a person where he was from.  “Actually”, he said, “I’m from Scottsville,” Why not, just, “I’m from Scottsville.”?  On a TV “judge show” recently a litigant said, “He actually told me, ‘don’t touch my dog, he bites’.”
This is one of the overworked words that have become fashionable in this generation.  According to my trusty-dusty Thesaurus, it means: truly, indeed, in very truth, in fact; beyond doubt.
Is it a way of reinforcing that fact that, “I’m not lying to you?” Why should a person lie about being from Scottsville… or about Betty Grable’s legs, or about a warning that his dog bites?
Another thing, now days, if you thank someone, especially a young person, for a favor, they’ll reply “no problem”.  One day I laughing said to a young guy, “I didn’t mean for it to be a problem.”  He looked at me strangely.
I suppose we’ve always had overworked words and phrases in every generation.  One of the fertile grounds for overworked phrases was in old movies.  My favorite was, “Take it easy”.  A person could be lying there with his head hanging by a thread, and the person trying to render help and comfort would invariably say “Take it easy.”  How on earth could a person hanging on the drop-side-of-yonder, take it easy?
Another from TV and movie scripts is, “What’s that supposed to mean?”  They’ve about worn that one out.  Maybe script writers will come up with a new one someday.
May I digress here a moment:  Most movie and TV script writers need lots of help from real people who do real things.  For instance, in a movie a driver has no need to move the steering wheel constantly when driving.  Likewise, a pilot doesn’t horse the controls about all the time.  Heck, the plane would be all over the sky.
Speaking of horsing, in movies you see someone walk up behind a horse and slap him on rump.  No-no.  Not even a gentle horse.  He may kick just from reflex over being startled.  I have two boyhood friends who both lost front teeth like this.
And when coffee is poured in a movie, make sure it’s really hot.  You can always tell the difference in the sound of hot or cold coffee being poured.  And for heaven –sake never use blackened coal-oil lamp chimneys.  Any self-respecting housewife back then wouldn’t be caught dead with a black chimney. If I had another life, I might take-up movie directing.  Not really.
“Basically” is another goodie.  “The man was basically dead at the scene.” What does that mean, was he dead or wasn’t he?
When I was eight or nine, “basically” my mother Gladys, told me to stay away from the frozen pond behind our barn.  “Actually”, I went by it on my way from school, with my friend, Elmer Ray Wright.  We skated and had a large-ole-time.
“Basically”, Gladys found-out about my misdeed.  I’ve always suspected she worked for both the FBI and CIA. “Actually” my britches wouldn’t hold shucks for the next week or so.  “Basically”, my skating days were over.
My daddy, Luther, left most of my corporal punishment to my mother, also the TALK.  You know the one I mean… about the difference in boys and girls… the birds-and-the-bees-thing. Somehow my daddy couldn’t bring himself to do that…he was so fastidious about such things (He referred to legs as “limbs”, when speaking of the female gender).  I sometimes wonder how all three of us kids got here. First wife Bett assures me, “at times, men are not really that shy about such matters.”
Anyway, when I was fourteen or so, I imagine Gladys figured I was beginning to acquire “hormones”., which I was… my voice was changing from a small boy’s voice, to sort of a yodel.  So Gladys thought it was about time for her to tell me the “dangers” that might be laying -in-wait.
“Actually”, her TALK was very succinct and to the point: “If a girl ever tries to sit on your lap, you make her get-up.”  Nothing more.
“Basically”, I have nothing more.
Kindest regards…