A good friend of mine is wont to exclaim, "I could care less what she thinks."
And that's fine, but by saying that he "could care less," he actually is saying sure, he could care less if he wanted to, but he doesn't want to. Right now he just wants to care a little.
I think what he really means, though, is that it's just not possible for him to care less than he does now. So he should say, "I couldn't care less what she thinks."
That's far more accurate, don't you think?
I couldn't care less may be a little more accurate but it seems a horrible thing to say to someone - though I've said it to more than a few people myself. Possibly we should all just stick with the "I don't care" and move on rather than trying to quanitfy our care factor.
ReplyDeleteHear, hear! Indeed, why not go back to the good ol' days, back in, when, the 80s? When we REALLY didn't care!
ReplyDeleteThis one always got to me. When I heard someone say that, I always followed that remark with inquiring how much less they could care.
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