[TAG] rhubarb

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Ben Okopnik (ben at callahans.org):

> > You are _so_ fired.
> 
> Now it's my turn to stand there blinking, with an "insufficient
> information" neon sign over my head. Is it a movie reference or
> something? I've heard it used, and it gets a few points for cute, but
> - huh?

Now that you've asked, I'm curious, too, and am attempting to chase down
the expression.

I'm betting that one major milestone was its use in an episode of the
short-lived but wonderful television series "The Lone Gunmen",
concerning the luftmenschen-like main characters' enthusiastic but
somewhat hapless office assistant, Jimmy Bond:

Frohike: "Son of a..." [He's tossing files on the floor]

Byers: "Frohike... we've got a deadline here. I need your column ten
minutes ago"

Frohike: "I need the file on the Warren Commission in order to finish
it."

Langly: "Try looking under 'W'."

Frohike: "Oh, you moron." [He finds the file] "He files the Warren
Commission under 'T'  'The Warren Commission'."

Langly: "Ah, cut the guy some slack."

Frohike: "Oh, and look... here's 'The Teapot Dome Scandal', 'The Grassy
Knoll'. I say we fire his ass."

Langly: "You've just got to know how to handle him. Keep it simple.
Like, I asked him to clean my keyboard." [He holds the keyboard up and
water pours onto the floor] "Byers."

Byers: "You're both forgetting it's his life savings keeping us in
print."

Frohike: "I don't care, he's a menace."

Byers: "He believes in our mission. He's got a good heart. And... he's
so happy to be here. If we let him go it will crush him."

Jimmy: "Crush who?" [He enters the office] "Who's going to get crushed?"

Byers: "Jimmy... We've been talking. We're not sure this is the right
place for you."

Jimmy: "What, are you kidding? Working with guys like you, it's a
dream."

Byers: "Jimmy..."

Jimmy: "I've been looking my whole life for something like this. To feel
like I make a difference, to work with men of integrity, to fight to
make this a better country. You three, you're heroes. I am so proud to
be a part of this team. Just talking about it... look at that,
goosebumps."

Frohike: "You are so fired."



I'm finding that the expression is difficult to chase down, but I'm
better that it goes way back.  One source speculates that "so" as a
superlative is "a great-grandchild of Valley speak", but I suspect
that's off by a decade or two.

Time to call in the Lexicographic Irregulars!

-- 
Cheers,             "Don't use Outlook.  Outlook is really just a security
Rick Moen            hole with a small e-mail client attached to it."
rick at linuxmafia.com                        -- Brian Trosko in r.a.sf.w.r-j