Hello, Welcome. I’m Renée Valentina and this is Musing Interruptus. Listen to Musing Interruptus if you like stories and learning idiomatic phrases in different contexts. You can read along; just click on continue reading in the description to open a Google Doc with the transcription of this episode. The idiomatic expressions are in italics. Try to get the meaning from the context and then look them up to see if you were right. If you like it, subscribe, follow, and share, but more importantly, continue the conversation. Drop a comment with your answers to today’s questions! I love hearing from you!

Gone Fishin’

There are many fish in the sea. How many is many? What does that imply? Will there be fish for me? What if I take my fishing rod, go out to sea, and catch nothing? Not even a sardine.

I’d feel terrible.

Plus, I get seasick, so that would make it a doubly terrible day.

Then again, what if a whale takes the bait? I’m not sure I’ll be able to reel that catch in. Whales are pretty big. I might need help.

It would probably be best if I didn’t catch a whale.

Why go fishing in the first place if I can only catch a certain type of fish? I might catch a mackerel or a tuna.

Catchable fish.

What if I like that particular fish? They might have a beautiful name or be excellent conversationalists.

I’ll try not to think of it much. I’ll just go fishing.

I’ll hope for Pirates of the Caribbean but I imagine I’ll get something along the lines of Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea. At least there will be adventure.

I know we aren’t really talking about the sea or fish.

It’s about people and opportunities and platitudes.

You might hear this when a relationship has not gone your way. You get your heart broken, and that means your friends will provide a list of platitudes that will do nothing, except maybe distract you for a moment. This is a very nice thing to have done for you when things are not going your way.